They were working on applying mRNA technology to other diseases, including (and in particular) cancer, well before the pandemic. While it is true that they have received significant funding this year, they had a $7.6B market cap on Dec 31, 2019 and were already conducting several clinical studies for mRNA-based medicine [1].

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20200128054759/https://biontech....

Smaller companies here in the bay area as well, see: Rejuvenation Tech.

Moderna is too.

IMO, the healthier coping mechanism is to realize that the path you take in life will never be the most optimal. We all make mistakes, and if all we care about is extrinsic achievement, we'll be either steeped in regret (or perhaps, blissfully ignorant). Instead of being outcome dependent, try to value things that are by nature, intrinsic.

No. The cash helped develop a vaccine this fast, but further application comes with the recent innovation in the lipid nano particles for delivery. That was done before the pandemic.