Whether it’s stuff like this, crapping on journalists for asking legit questions, concealing or even destroying climate data, etc these folks should not be trusted with anything of consequence under any circumstances.
The fish rots from the head— even presuming this was the handiwork of some political appointee/apparatchik/barnacle who wanted to make sure there is no “bad news”, they got their cue from higher up the food chain.
You’d figure a genuine crisis like this might shake these folks out of their stupor but no luck yet.
Many folks are stressed af about the economy & there needs to be be a cost/benefit way to measure the risks, etc but this is no good.
This is the kind of shady/moronic behavior you’d expect in a political ecosystem like China, Russia, Turkey, etc