[frockington1]

They've taken it a step further in recent years. Not only should you be shielded, but if you have wrong think then society should be shielded from you. Australia is the most extreme example but you can see the punishment of wrong think creeping up everywhere

[jeremyjh]

But at the same time the discourse has gotten far stupider. People just believe anything shared with them on Facebook and have no interest in seeing it debunked. I agree with you and GP that scientists telling people the whole truth is the only path forward but the fact is these scientists in this email chain did not have the whole truth, and we may never have it because China doesn't seem to want anyone to know the origin of this virus. So having a policy of not engaging in public speculation is not quite the same as a policy of silence or a cover-up.