It absolutely has. This includes getting mRNA vaccines into a usable form (they may be useful for influenza in the future), improved understanding of how positioning impacts recovery from severe pneumonia, improvements to telehealth.

We can, for example, now look to a possible future where somebody with flu-like symptoms can get a multi-disease test from a pharmacy, without a prescription, take the test, then video conference their doctor, show the doctor the results and get the appropriate antiviral. This reduces the number of people with contagious disease giving it to everyone else in the doctor's waiting room.

COVID-19 has absolutely caused some advances and also accelerated existing shifts.

The price is too high, though.