The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a 67-page report, says the task force aims “to ensure that science is conducted, managed, communicated, and used in ways that preserve its accuracy and objectivity and protect it from suppression, manipulation, and inappropriate influence — including political interference.”

It won’t have to look far: The United States government has been misbehaving on the scientific front for years, most notably in the COVID-19 pandemic. Political interference, suppression, manipulation and inappropriate influence have been standard, which is why trust in government, particularly on science, has fallen so far.

Ironically, even as this initiative was announced, damning new information about government scientists’ response to the COVID-19 outbreak came out. A series of just-released e-mails from top scientists revealed they were highly confident that the disease came out of a Chinese laboratory, even as their public statements treated any such suggestions as crazy talk, “conspiracy theory” and “misinformation.”