Yes, I agree with that. I would even say that self-censorship and shunning of out-of-favor ideas is inherent in academia, because funding and senior positions are always limited and controlled by older, more established people. The solution has always been more openness. What's happening here is an escalation beyond anything we've seen in the culture wars and it's using the power of the state to suppress anything that could even remotely be construed as dissenting.

I don't disagree, however my point was that if this research was already biased/filtered/self-censored as above it really diminishes their ability to complain about openness. True or not laymen will view it as a double standard.

That point would be more reasonable if this decision was limited to research about controversial topics. It's not. It includes, at the very least, ALL the science that CDC is involved with. That includes, among other things, a paper about bird flu infections among bovine veterinarians. It's a massive escalation. https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/cdc-trump-mmwr-bird-f...