"We must act like any wartime government."
Totalitarian Operations Check List: False Flag an event. (Some do need to die.) Sell a new enemy, novel pathogen, "different" type of war. Remove freedom, add surveillance. Lather, rinse, repeat.
In a nutshell:
“We have a new and different enemy and *we need to come together to save humanity. This is a war.”
*Terms and conditions may apply
You can almost superimpose the talking heads over each other, one after another saying the same thing.