Early in the pandemic there was a widespread belief that science would be our salvation. With the help of science we would be spared the worst consequences, such as occurred during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. A vaccine would arrive, reliably, after a few hard months of research, and in short order the problem would then be essentially solved, and we could all resume our previous lives with a strengthened faith in the power of science to solve our problems and improve our lives. New therapies, like hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, and others would ease the course of the disease for those who did get infected. And we had no doubt about the reliability of tests to identify people who had the disease or who had had the disease and were now possessed with immunity.
Of course it didn’t work out that way. Science didn’t save the day.