My interpretation: It is a sort of metaphor. The writer meant to say that maybe all this health crisis "Covid-19" is a fake one! It may be a game; a video game that is the mere creation of the brainiest teenagers who tend to entertain us and amuse themselves!
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Please, check this article:

I do not believe in the simulation hypothesis, which he is joking about here. For those not familiar, it posits that what we think of as reality is not actually real. Instead, we are living in a complex simulation that was probably created by a supercomputer, invented by an obviously superior being.

Everything’s fake news, if you will, or really just designed as a giant video game to amuse what would have to be the brainiest teenagers who ever lived.

Crazy, right?

But while most people think they actually do exist, wouldn’t it be nice to have a blame-free explanation to cope with the freak show that has become our country and the world? (I vote yes, even if some quantum computer just made me type that.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/opinion/simulation-hypoth...
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والله أعلم


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Note added at 35 mins (2020-04-29 07:03:01 GMT)
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Earlier in that article:

Wednesday night, in no particular order in the space of an hour: The N.B.A. suspended its season. Tom Hanks announced that he and his wife have the coronavirus. President Trump, who had spent time hate-tweeting Vanity Fair magazine earlier in the day, banned travel from Europe.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/opinion/simulation-hypoth...

والله أعلم

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Note added at 40 mins (2020-04-29 07:08:22 GMT)
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This term in question was taken from this published article here:

In fact, it felt like a minor miracle when the tireless Dr. Fauci popped up on Sean Hannity’s show this week to kindly school him on his irresponsible downplaying and deep-state conspiracy mongering of the health crisis. Pushing back on the specious claim that the coronavirus is just like the flu — a notion also promoted by Mr. Trump — Dr. Fauci said, “It’s 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu,” to a temporarily speechless Mr. Hannity. “You got to make sure that people understand that!”

I sure have Dr. Fauci to thank for saying that, which he repeated in congressional testimony too. In all this mess, it felt like a positive turn in the game. But just in case a game it is, I’ll also raise a simulated glass to those teenagers somewhere out there pushing all the buttons to make it so. Not so much for Sarah Palin’s singing, but I’ll take that too.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/opinion/simulation-hypoth...

والله أعلم

push the buttons = provoke فhe others يستفزوا الاخرين