It is a scandal and a potential disaster that we aren’t better at probabilities. Probability is hard and often counter-intuitive, but we have to find some simple ways to nudge people to realise this and deal with it.
If I try to translate from numeracy to literacy, I’d say that the doctors’ failure was the equivalent of being unable to write a decent essay about “The Waste Landâ€, while the MPs’ failure was more like the inability to read a newspaper.