big sur 11.2 finder and spotlight search not working

after upgrading to Big Sur 11.2, finder and spotlight searches no longer work. I reinstalled the operating system as recommended by a tech support person but it did not fix the problem. Spotlight can only find applications and seems to be in an eternal indexing state. it's been over a week since the reinstall. Finder search shows <spinny thing> Loading... and never returns a result.