Using the COVID-19 pandemic in China as the background, the current study investigated the association between panic buying behavior and consumers' choice overload during the public health crisis, and provided the empirical evidence on the dual sequential mediating pathways from the theoretical perspective of Protection Motivation Theory and Compensatory Control Theory. Through the cross-sectional online anonymous survey method, 492 samples were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic in China when the lockdown measure and the static management were implemented. Our results identified that the fear of being infected and the perceived threat sequentially mediated the effect of the panic buying on the choice overload, and the fear of being infected and the perceived control sequentially mediated the effect of the panic buying on the choice overload during the public health crisis. Machine learning algorithms also further identified the predictive effect of all feature variables on the choice overload during the public health crisis. Our findings provided a new perspective on the understanding of consumers' behavior during the public health crisis, and further extended the application of the Protection Motivation Theory and the Compensatory Control Theory to the consumer behavior research.