It is tempting to call this understanding because people switched their mind to the position that the data points to, but I doubt there is any real understanding going on. Their sense of reality was warped by things they saw on repeat in the media that disproportionally highlighted certain outlier examples. This is not an environment where solid understanding happens and good decisions get made. For some it will be a call to action to look at the real data. But I think most people will simply be emotionally manipulated by the cherry-picking and lies of omission. Such people are uneasy allies to reality. They are doing the right things for the wrong reasons. When underlying circumstances change their 'understanding' will fail to course correct and they will again need to be shown what to think. And the media coverage waning will directly correspond to their 'understanding' of the severity waning as well.