It's a while since I encountered this issue but I think the markdown engine was converting that back to $. In the end I had to use <span>$</span> and even that

It's a while since I encountered this issue but I think the markdown engine was converting that back to $. In the end I had to use <span>$</span> and even that too some jumping through hoops because again markdown was removing html. This was in Hugo, whatever markdown engine they use.