It's absolutely both of those. The natural culture of science is pretty slow and pretty conservative: we want to look before we leap, and be sure about consequences before we make big changes. Most of the time, that culture has (arguably) at least some positives, especially if the alternative is Facebook-style "move fast and break stuff." Sometimes, though, we need to expedite that process and it's worth taking some risks in order to prevent more damage. Competent political (and scientific, really) leadership should pressure scientific institutions to behave extraordinarily in extraordinary circumstances.