Perhaps the issue is that certain proponents of Science positioned it as the enemy of religion (the now-debunked idea that if only more people knew about science, they would reject religion), which then leads to an artificial conflict between the two, when of course there is none.

Certain friends of mine do behave as if Science were a religion, with the same closed-minded zeal of the most obnoxious pharisee. It leads me to believe that the behaviour is a natural human trait: if you banned religion and politics, people would go to war over Apple vs Android.

The idea of 'believing in' covid-19 is easier for me: I know people who have got very sick for a long time with the symptoms, and I know someone whose colleague died with it recently. Even Doubting Thomas was persuaded when he saw it with his own eyes.