There will always be people that don't know what you know and vice versa. It's a given fact of life. It's like forgetting that the sky is blue. Haha. I.e., I agree with you, but your statement is more humble than the last.

"but your statement is more humble than the last."

It also was a different person ..

And? I know it was a different person.

You are giving an example of the very issue you complain about. You worry about this not from a background of epidemiology, but another field entirely. Some of the people who were not worried were deferring to expert opinions they have read about the matter.

The vast majority of people dont really "get" functions or plots or line fitting

They took 7th grade math, but assert that y=mx is meaningless in real life and doesn't help them understand anything they have to deal with

Yeah. Originally when those people refused to wear masks I quietly wished them death. But after awhile I got more tired of hearing educated people pretend that their intellect was keeping them alive more than their economic leverage was. Rooting for the ignorant to die of covid was a bad look. Granted, we also had a president who said he loved the uneducated, so it all took place at a moment when that line could be drawn in a certain way. In any event, the snobbish castigation of people who don't understand science or math didn't help and actually hurt the cause of getting them to protect themselves and everyone else.