The origins of the coronavirus pandemic remain a contested mystery, but that hasn't stopped a certain set of pundits, activists, and former Trump administration officials from insisting the case is closed: the virus escaped from a Chinese lab, U.S. scientists were involved, and justice must be served. Well, justice appears to have arrived, and it's brought handcuffs.

Since April, a string of researchers have faced consequences. Ralph Baric, a 72-year-old virologist at UNC-Chapel Hill who worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was referred for debarment from federal contracts for at least three years over paperwork issues and decade-old experiments. David Morens, a 78-year-old flu expert and Fauci adviser, was indicted for conspiring to hide or falsify discussions of coronavirus grants - and reportedly arrested at home in his underwear by armed FBI agents. Jeffrey Taubenberger, acting head of NIAID and a close Morens colleague, stepped down or was fired. Vincent Munster, another NIAID virologist, was indicted for allegedly smuggling mpox samples from the Congo without proper documentation. And Anthony Fauci himself has been subpoenaed to testify before the Senate.

Lab-leak hardliners are thrilled. Anthony Bellotti of White Coat Waste Project declared that "Morens' indictment should be the beginning - not the end - of long-overdue lab leak accountability." Senator Rand Paul, who subpoenaed Fauci, said "He has not really gotten his just deserts." But despite all this retribution, a shaky status quo persists in biosafety rules. The Trump administration's executive order to end gain-of-function research funding has stalled - deadlines for new rules came and went. So for now, research policy is being handled by the Department of Justice, and America's top doctor may soon testify again while the science he championed remains unfettered and the scientists he funded risk ending up in chains.