Seriously. It's the fault of English, if not you English. It's the same problem the scientists have when talking about whether they're sure of something, for instance in court. Scientists are never sure of anything. Even the law of gravity is a probability statement. But a non-scientist, for instance on the jury, who hears the word "probability," feels that the scientist has just said "uncertain." Non-specialists are going to use words like "certainty" and "shock" colloquially. That's just all there is to it. I don't see the solution as expecting them to acquire a specialist's precision. Better for the scientist to say, "You're as likely to be hit by an asteroid right now as that these two blood samples match." Or for the dispatcher to say, "Is the person cold and clammy to the touch?" . . . or whatever the symptoms of clinical shock are. I'm shocked -- shocked! -- to realize I don't know.