[pandaman]

I think the problem is in the stakes. Consider the USSR - it had pretty fucked up science scene around 1930s-1960s: a lot of areas had been politicized and guided by the Party Line instead of reality. For example Genetics had been considered anti-Marxist for whatever reason and Genetic research had been forbidden (other than research to expose Genetic as a pseudo-science). But the science needed to make weapons had been pretty good. Nobody wanted to make a theory of Marxist-Leninist Physics and spend the rest of life in prison for screwing up rocket or nuke development.

Then the late 60s came around and the Party found they don't grow nearly as much food as the Rotting West. The Marxist-Leninist Biology missed the Green Revolution for inexplicable reason. Even though not as important as weapons it was a big deal - the state could have been spending much less resources on growing food and buying food from abroad and use them to make ICBMs or something else speeding up the Global Revolution's approach! So Marxist-Leninist Biology got a book thrown at it. And, not being dumb, the Party restrained the politics in many other areas, just to be safe. So by 70s-80s science in the USSR had been much less politicized than now in the US in my opinion.

I hope the current crisis will be a wake up call to the US. Hopefully people realize that playing politics around medical research is not just giving you cushy jobs and government grants - it can also fuck up the whole economy and if people cannot stop doing it by themselves then somebody have to throw a book or a whole library at them. And, maybe, just like the CPSU, they might do it in other areas, just to be safe.