I saw somewhere that a scientist explained it by saying "You don't want to appear like a kooky alarmist, so you report the numbers that you can be confident in,

I saw somewhere that a scientist explained it by saying "You don't want to appear like a kooky alarmist, so you report the numbers that you can be confident in, instead of the extreme numbers"... As for the reaction, it's a tragedy of the commons, nobody wants to give up their fly-to-Europe-to-ski-because-it's-cheaper holidays/why do they have to give it up and see all those billionaire Instagram kids flaunting about doing that on Instagram?