Scary number of people, not even of religious sort, think that it's perfectly fine to pick and choose which parts of scientific achievement they accept and which they don't. It's more on the scale of what they like or don't like. They might like their smartphones and other gadgets, not so much vaccines, fluoride, GMO, all that which isn't 'natural' or 'organic'.

So yes, it is a question of people grasping the science, not of this specifically, but as a whole. They are not on-board, they never fully confront any contradictions that they encounter or spew. Logic is not their friend, they are not inquisitive, getting to the bottom of something is not in their nature. You might think that in general people are reasonable, but margins are not that high and informed-ness is very surface-level.