You have to understand that while the rest of the world has moved on from 2020, academics are still living there. There are many strong leftists, many of whom are deeply censorious; there are many more timeservers and cowards, who are terrified of falling foul of the first group.

And there are force multipliers for all of this. Even if you yourself are a sensible and courageous person, you want to protect your project. What if your manager, ethics committee or funder comes under pressure?