in defense of reductionists: We probably would not even know about viruses without molecular biology, the most reductionist of all biologies.
Dr Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, thought that Man's greatest discovery was the '
particle nature' of matter.
Molecular biology
is nicely reductionist and particular in nature, with a significant progress assist for the scientists from the engineers and craftsmen that invented and built their various microscopes, etc for the discovery process. Let's not ever forget the hardware guys.
Unfortunately, at least with this less-scientific case, virologists have been grasping, reductionistally ... like with the sudden recommended transition from 3ft distancing to 6ft. Whatever ... from a nonlinear standpoint, a 2X increase in the distancing radius translates to 4X more 'safe space' and 8X more 'safe volume'. Progress.
Forward!