These Republican appointees stepping forward to decry Trump's politically motivated lying about COVID-19 were just fine with the GOP lying about science when it came to HIV, contraception and abortion. https://www.salon.com/2020/12/16/trump-appointees-protest-politicization-of-the-pandemic-now--but-the-gop-has-long-distorted-science/

Both the CDC whistleblowers were brought on by Tom Price, a man who lied as readily about reproductive health care as Trump lies about COVID-19. Oh yeah, and his wife endorsed the "leper colonies for HIV positive people" idea. In 2017.

Trump is just working off a template that was laid out by the entire GOP before, including and especially the Bush administration, which also forced the CDC to censor important health advice. It's just that fewer people cared because the victims were women and LGBTQ people.

Remember, long before Trump decided that it was somehow emasculating to wear a mask, Pence was out there lying about condoms, saying they don't work and also that they're too "modern" and "liberal".

This is the reason the GOP practiced its anti-science and censorship skills on health care information for women and LGBTQ people. They knew that few people would care, and they could perfect the art before rolling out the war on science, as Trump did, on the nation as a whole.