Hysteria is contagious... There is such a thing observed as social contagion. The white women is just the spark. Diseases are not the only thing we can spread.
We have very little actual awareness/understanding of our physical condition and the effects of environmental stimuli on us. We talk about vibrations a lot. That is something we don't articulate well but we know from intuition good vibes vs bad vibes. If vibrations affect us then we are at times like antenna in our environment.
These incidents keep happening with more frequency in plane travel post COVID. We have had heightened social anxiety. But why always the plane? Are we just repeating what we see others do or what particularly is triggering about this environment? Maybe it's the hang over anxiety of closed in spaces driving people to act like this.