If you're in a profession with a license you are expected to follow a code of ethics. If you violate it, the profession in its interest to protect itself, can and rightfully will remove you.
For example, licensed a professional social workers are not to have sexual relations with their clients. If found doing so their license is revoked and their name is publish in professional magazines and news letters.
The same is applied to Engineers. If a licensed professional Engineer is found to be faking data to make a car appear more safe they are out of a license and career.
If a Doctor is found to be reporting false information to the public during a public health crisis I would say that's a huge ethical violation and I expect their profession to remove them, promptly.
If we're comparing how Western free society handled Covid versus China I think we can agree that the Western society has been significantly more transparent and were not locking people inside apartment buildings.