Yeah you can pretty much transplant this sentence to any public forum:

At the same time, we are concerned by a chilling attitude among some [people], who are wrongly ascribing legitimate disagreements about [issues] to ignorance or to questionable political or other motivations.

Meh. This trend was in full force long before the virus showed up.

> What, if anything, is more necessary to a free society than the free expression and debate of ideas?

The commons must be protected from bad actors, and bad faith whose purpose is to use the openness of society against itself. [1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

To imply that John Ioannidis is a bad actor is ridiculous.

What is a "good actor" motivation for organizing a press tour for a non-peer reviewed preprint?

If that's suspect, why aren't you questioning all the other scientists and doctors doing interviews right now?

I am absolutely questioning all of the scientists and doctors who perform press tours for unreviewed preprints, yes.

It is a plausible explanation for his recent actions. And, in fact, his recent actions require us to re-visit his past investigations and expose with the assumption of good faith suspended.

All this does is help expose the theory of "paradox of intolerance" for what it truly is. A hammer with which to bludgeon people whom you don't agree with.

“We will not tolerate intolerance!”

Protected by who?

Definitely not people like you.