These could be personal, technological, or otherwise. I'll start:
When news of COVID-19 first broke from China in early 2020, I recall downplaying the severity of the virus to a friend. I wiseacrely remarked that the media erroneously referred to it as the COVID-19 virus, not SARS-CoV-2. Even after he shared his Chinese family members' experiences with the illness, I wasn't convinced.
It wasn't until it came to America that I paid closer attention. Reading the reports of the toll it took on our healthcare system, I took it more seriously as quickly as the virus was spreading. Regardless of the debate over death attribution and symptomatic severity, I never anticipated the pandemic to be in the top 10 deadliest epidemics by death count.
I think exceptionalism and ignorance played important roles in my initial take: "It's just like ebola, SARS, or H1N1. If it comes to the US, our superior infrastructure will render the virus a mere nuisance!"
P.S. Here's an incorrect technological prediction from a friend who had studied aerospace and ocean engineering: "SpaceX could never land a rocket on a moving ocean platform!"
Also that people vastly support freedom of speech in principle and don't need to be compelled by law and that fighting for it isn't that necessary in most advanced societies.
A small one is that engineers by heart would reject walled gardens like Apple OS for development. A lot of them do, but there is a significant population that likes paternalism.
For Covid I actually thought the response would be more relaxed. I still see it as an overreaction for everyone not in particularly threatened groups. Yes, it could hit everyone, but that fits the background noise of threats to your life.
I also thought COVID-19 would be a nothing-burger, and told everyone about the time I tricked one of my passengers into believing calamity was imminent. I hired an animator to tell the story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24881670
The elephant in the COVID-19 discussion is Oxygen Toxicity [0]. I have seen precious little discussion of the Science-Fact that breathing air with >21% oxygen causes deterioration, and that ventilators cause barotrauma (damage caused by pressure differentials). Sometimes people seem to benefit from supplemental oxygen, but incorporation of the antidote for oxygen toxicity would help them recover lung function, rather than just keep them barely alive.
[0] https://www.taxiwars.org/2021/06/folly-medical-hyperventilat...
@Farid__Jalali tweeted about how to properly treat COVID-19 with cyproheptadine [1] and other repurposed drugs. The medical establishment didn't care, and mostly used worthless remdisivir and other harmful drugs. COVID-19 would've been a nothing-burger, if they didn't have a vaccine to sell.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28911223
I amused myself by submitting a poll, Poll: Do you find Humanity's lack of science-faith disturbing? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28908797
As to your question, I used to place too much faith in the pronouncements of Materialist Science. Experience has helped me appreciate the limitations of the mechanical world view.