It's funny how "science", that was used after or around the reformation to oppose Roman Catholic authoritarianism in western Europe, is now used to create a new authoritarianism around a set of invisible fears beyond any individual or individual community's ability to resist.

But, it should not be surprising. In the same way that Christianity only came out of hiding and separation from the "world", and into power over that world, when Constantine organized a council that created a religion he could eventually be baptized into, some say that science rose along with religious reformation up from being persecuted the way Galileo or Giordano Bruno or Jan Hus or Lollards and their ideas were, not through the strength of their ideas but by the support of local nobility trying to free themselves from Rome's yoke over their shoulders. (that yoke then is a tribute to, or warning about, how long the influence of the Roman/Byzantine empire survived.

We can call it institutional capture, the corporatization of science, privitization of science or knowledge, but ultimately it is about power and power is always about controlling the lives and actions of others. Be it "get the jab", "arrest that man", "pay the fine", "you can't do that without a licence", or "gee it looks like the rich and those in power do not suffer under the law as others do": it is always about power over others. Money is nothing it if doesn't give power over others, power to make the shop keeper sell you something without having to steal it from him or fight him for it, or power to purchase labor even when that labor is to steal from the shop keeper or lie or perform sex acts. One of the most disgusting things about the Roman world that early Christians opposed was the idea that child sex slavery was OK and one of the things rich roman citizens could engage in. If something does not change, it will be back soon so just how sickening it is will not be just a thought exercise or a supposition or something garnered from the testimony of the few who escape it.