Brief enough exposure: no, it doesn't hurt.

Walking across a bed of hot coals: no pain, no damage.

Stick a coal in your pocket and keep it there until it is completely dead: pain and damage.

Walk past a glob of radioactive iodine: no pain, no damage.

Swallow a glob of radioactive iodine: pain and damage.

Two different situations using the same material, two very different outcomes. The media is mixing the two, and a lot of people have forgotten their high school physics. So they're cheerfully chirping along...