What we have learned about the rôles of lifestyle factors (such as smoking, obesity, lack of exercise, etc.) on our general health and the major diseases (such as heart disease and cancer), could not have been achieved without mathematicians designing and analysing large medical studies. Some of the world's best epidemiologists and chief investigators on major population-based medical studies were mathematicians and statisticians, by training.
Data does not equal information. Ad hoc collections of data, established without a clear and properly designed reason for being collected, are virtually useless. They are a waste of time and money, and are potentially misleading. Computerised statistical packages for analysing data are nothing, if not downright dangerous to the public, when in the hands of people who do not understand the mathematical and design principles behind statistical methods.
The brightest students are being attracted to computer science. If they could also be encouraged to study properly the methods of applied statistics, these individuals would have enormous power in their finger-tips to help society.