There's an interesting phenomenon going on here. People are now paying attention to things that for decades / lifetimes they have ignored / taken for granted. Add to this a great big dose of wishful thinking. So they are 'seeing' things that have always been there, but they are seeing them for the first time!

I have a bit of a phobia about insects. Whenever I see a 'black dot' on my white carpet, my brain jumps to 'insect'. So I stare at it for many seconds, and my brain 'sees' movement ... but it's not really movement at all! I reach down and pick it up and it's lint from my clothes ...