Over the past few weeks, a new hysteria has taken over. Claims of people seeing objects dart across the sky aren’t new and have been happening for years, but with 310 unique reports filed since March 2021, the rise has been unlike anything seen before. 

The start of this new wave of interest and sightings is easy to pinpoint. On Feb. 1, a UFO was sighted on the coast of South Carolina. The aircraft was strange: a large white balloon with a satellite hanging at the bottom. Three days later, it was shot down and recovered by specialized US Navy members, after which it was revealed to be a Chinese surveillance balloon. 

And with that, the floodgates opened. 

Six days later, an unidentified cigar-shaped aircraft was shot down in Alaska. The next day, Feb. 11, an unidentified object was shot down in Canada on top of an airspace in Montana being shut down after an unknown object was caught on radar. 

Everyone was now seeing UFOs, and most had more questions than answers. 

The simple fact is that none of this is new. Take the Chinese surveillance balloon, for example; the National Weather Service launches about 60,000 balloons into the stratosphere every year. It would be easy to mistake one for the other, but the only reason someone would nowadays is that they’ve seen the news. 

Even the US Air Force fell victim to this when they used a $400K missile to take down a $12 balloon belonging to an Illinois enthusiast club. There are hundreds of objects traveling in the sky at any given time every single day, but no one paid attention. No one cared until the spotlight was on them, and now, everyone is looking. 

Still, there are currently five known Chinese balloon flights into U.S. territory, with the number expected to grow larger by the year’s end. There is nothing wrong with being too careful, but let’s be real: it’s not worth losing your head over.