Unfortunately, there's always been a "Scientific Orthodoxy". Normally it's just a bunch of stubborn Scientific Elites hob-knobing with their council of peers from 'prestigious' academic institutions, and it normally doesn't actually get in the way of damaging progress in the real world. Fourier Series were held back from formal recognition for 40 years, mostly because of philosophical differences and political hostility to non-extreme rigor (academic make-work, frankly); but it was still used in Science and experimentation before that with good results.

The problem is that we're dealing with rabid fucking Leftism in scientific institutions at this point, and it's effecting policy badly. It's no different from Progressivism's intrusion into Science in the dawn of the last century with Eugenics, Social Darwinism, and Racialism. The last thing we need is for Scientists to come out and say, "Excuse me, I'm a Scientist and am therefore smarter than you. That's why the facts tell us we need to castrate the children. I'm very smart."