It's not conspiracy to note many actual qualified scientists were barred from making any claims contrary to the official stance. As we witnessed in late 2021, 2

It's not conspiracy to note many actual qualified scientists were barred from making any claims contrary to the official stance. As we witnessed in late 2021, 2022 these same scientists went from pariahs to the tip of the spear when the government let up it's censorship program. There are cases being heard right now against major social media companies on their collusion with government officials to push a narrative. Unfortunately, these scientists could only be heard on legitimate conspiracy platforms, thereby undermining their credibility further with the public despite the USG promoting it's own flavor of misinformation via the 4th branch. For all of 2020 "science" was "agreeing with the dominant viewpoint" rather than "questioning everything, gathering evidence, and presenting contrary views". You'd have to have had your head in the sand the last few years to miss how quickly the narrative opened up. It was dizzying. It would appear once the media found a new darling (the Ukraine war) the silencing of dissent in science slowly let up as well.