That bug was real. The panic about it that ensued was engineered, though, as software engineers already had a solution and were well on their way to implementing it.

The US news scared people unnecessarily, but a good portion of the public weren't scared about this. Stations made it seem like the world was going to end like they were some kind of doomsday prophet.

In the end, the day came, the day went, and the world moved on.