For many people who have never been interested in snakes, there is often a lot they don't understand & may be misinformed about. For example, most snakes
we keep as pets, & especially ball pythons, are very picky eaters. Can't tell you how many people think snakes are ravenous monsters as portrayed in movies that
cannot wait to eat us...LOL! We are NOT on their menu...we don't appeal at all. Unless we've been handling rats, mice or hamsters and happen to smell like them,
we're pretty safe.

Just helping them understand what snakes (BPs) are really like might help: they're shy & only bite out of fear/self-defense, or a feeding mistake (which is avoidable).
And even IF you get a nip, it's far less of a wound than most other pets do to you, and also much less likely to get infected.