This whole pandemic has shown us what can happen when you have a culture where admitting fault or showing vulnerability is an invitation for vultures to dine upon your entrails.
The origins of the pandemic were an entirely random event, even if some human error along the way enabled it. The Chinese government trying to deflect it reflects the deepest, most fragile version of this kind of culture, and this story is only the latest iteration. There have been plenty of stories on this site about the technological arms race between the CCP and anyone who wants to breathe a single word about the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The Western version of this fragility is evident throughout America's fractured political discourse. The simple process of learning more about the virus was used as fuel for conspiracy theorists trying actively to discredit scientists. "First they're saying herp but now they're saying derp?" and then they use that to support the conspiracy theory of their choice, and discredit and troll those of us who continue to believe that the pandemic is happening at all, that scientists are doing their best, that institutions can be helpful or may be essential. After a year of literally every new piece of information being used as an info-weapon, one gets antsy. So when Jon Stewart goes on Colbert's show and brings up the lab leak theory, I'm among the people who freaked out over it, because whether it was true or not, I was afraid that if it became an acceptable mainstream theory, then it would push the Overton window far enough that the people with theories about secret CIA bioweapons will start getting airtime, and so on and so on. And so it goes for all kinds of news, because if a study says "the herpderp vaccine may cause blood clots in almost nobody" then when Joe Podcast shortens it to "vaccines give you blood clots," he thinks he's relaying accurate scientific data. There's lots of information or hypotheses out there that become info-hazards in this way: even if they turn out to be true or close to the truth, they're very unlikely to help the pandemic end more quickly, and may well prolong it, and embolden the kind of people who profit from conspiratorial thinking. So the instinct to just shut people up about it is very strong.
Vaccine side effects are another way that perfectionism pervades our culture. When someone actually knows the numbers, and thinks that after millions of doses, 6 people getting tachycardia is too many, or when they tout every breakthrough case as evidence that the vaccine doesn't work at all. If they're arguing in good faith then they're implying that a 100% effective vaccine with no side effects is a realistic standard. The US has even paused administration of some vaccines "out of an abundance of caution", guess how the vaccine skeptics responded, hint: they weren't reassured. The very act of demonstrably doing the right thing backfires.
but the most direct harm of a culture where mistakes and imperfections aren't tolerated is just the day-to-day coverups that result, and the chilling effects it has on human behavior in general. People refusing to help each other because of the liability they might take on by doing so. People working around long-standing problems because they know getting it fixed involves insulting the wrong person. Everyone just covering their asses constantly.