This is why COVID was the breaking point: it was one of the very rare scenarios where highly technical and shifting scientific understanding was directly attach

This is why COVID was the breaking point: it was one of the very rare scenarios where highly technical and shifting scientific understanding was directly attached to meaningful lifestyle impacts for people. Science is always at least as messy (generally more so) as it was during COVID, but generally it doesn't matter because only "settled science" gets turned into technology and deployed to people's lives. All the input chaos has been abstracted away by the time it matters at all to most people. The general public is not, has never been, and never will be cognitively and intellectually equipped to grapple with shifting science directly -- nor should they need to, they've got other shit to do that scientists can't do!