Take fright over US politician's suggestions initially for Covid etc (9)

I believe the answer is:

pandemics

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'covid etc' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'take fright over us politician's suggestions initially' is the wordplay.
'take fright' becomes 'panic' (become frightened).
'over' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'us politician' becomes 'dem' (short for Democrat).
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'suggestions' is 's'.
'panic' going around 'dem' is 'pandemic'.
'pandemic'+'s'='PANDEMICS'

'for' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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