Crisis‑Origin Transparency Protocols

When a high‑stakes scientific hypothesis (e.g., pandemic origin) is plausible but uncertain, agencies and leading journals should follow a predefined transparency protocol: publish communication logs, declare who coordinated messaging, and release robustness maps of competing hypotheses and uncertainty bounds. The protocol would be triggered in declared emergencies to avoid secrecy that later corrodes public trust. — Establishing a standard procedure for openness during scientific uncertainty would reduce the political cost of honest uncertainty, protect institutional credibility, and lower the chance that labeled 'consensus' later proves misleading.