How would scientists get and publish the data if they don't know it exists? Or, if they intellectually think it probably exists, that's different from actually

How would scientists get and publish the data if they don't know it exists? Or, if they intellectually think it probably exists, that's different from actually seeing that it exists. I think the CDC is totally wrong, what they did/are doing has a massive impact on the quality of "the science" (as in normal science where the scientists can actually talk about what they did).