Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson makes a pointed observation here, but I wonder how true it is.

I grant that some of us need to be scientifically literate. Without that, our civilization could not keep up with things like vaccines against pandemics, while creating all other medical breakthroughs.  we wouldn’t have effective anti-ballistic missiles, climate change mitigation solutions, a deeper understanding of the cosmos around us, and the entire ensemble of IT and communications technologies that make our lives ever more productive.

Keep in mind, however that anything of importance that’s happening in science in the 21st Century is happening at the outermost fringes of incredible levels of specificity.  What I learned about physics in college 50 years ago no more qualifies me to understand theoretical physics today than it enables me to fly to the moon in my Prius.

Another thing I would grant is that the 99.999% of us who are not “scientifically literate” in any meaningful way should respect the value of science, and reject QAnon-style beliefs, e.g., the flat Earth, the notion that COVID is a government plot, that global warming is a hoax, that Bill Gates is trying to enslave the population, etc.

Scientific Literacy