Scientists admit they were wrong all the time, read the papers instead of reading third hand news reports. In fact, well researched "we are wrong" papers will get much more visibility and citations than simple confirmation, so scientists are encouraged to write them.
The fun thing about COVID is that because of the emergency situation the general public got exposed to the messiness of the scientific process, so we get a lot of these "scientists were wrong!". Well, yes, and not only it is a normal part of the scientific process, but if you read the papers, you may realize that the "wrongness" is very relative.
Also realize that scientists are not policymakers, they give suggestions in their field of expertise. For example, health scientists may say lockdowns are very effective at limited the spread of Covid-19, but they don't consider the economic consequences, it is not their job. On the other hand economists will only consider the economic consequences, and sociologists will study how restrictive rules will affect the population. The conclusions will be obviously different, but the job of policymakers is to sort it out and act accordingly.
The fun thing about COVID is that because of the emergency situation the general public got exposed to the messiness of the scientific process, so we get a lot of these "scientists were wrong!". Well, yes, and not only it is a normal part of the scientific process, but if you read the papers, you may realize that the "wrongness" is very relative.
Also realize that scientists are not policymakers, they give suggestions in their field of expertise. For example, health scientists may say lockdowns are very effective at limited the spread of Covid-19, but they don't consider the economic consequences, it is not their job. On the other hand economists will only consider the economic consequences, and sociologists will study how restrictive rules will affect the population. The conclusions will be obviously different, but the job of policymakers is to sort it out and act accordingly.