I have major reservations about the conduct of all politicians and many experts. Somethings they got right but most was very badly handled.
I do not know if they lied - ie knew they were telling an untruth.
I do believe many people made comments that were unsound but many believed that was the best they could do at the time.
I think some experts were irresponsible and even show boating - Dr Ferguson in the UK had a very flawed model and a bad track record on predicting previous virus spreads. Dr Fauci seemed to enjoy the attention he got and made lots of different comments ranging from early 2020 comments of there being no need for a travel ban to the early China travel ban was an important step in stopping the virus. The WHO clearly had major conflicts which have been commented on
I think the Swedish governments experts' approach was very clear and consistent as was Taiwans. Both followed different paths.
Some of the experts seem to have been very compromised and have huge conflicts of interest being too close to the pharma business and various lobby and charity groups especially in the USA.
That is a structural problem in most countries. Pharma is not properly regulated as it is too powerful and too close to the regulators, researchers and politicians
The points you make about the study limitations make sense however the fact that it was a closed environment in which people with the virus circulated over a period of time makes it useful to look at when compared to taking random members of the public whose exposures to covid-19 would have far harder to determine
Certainly this was not a clinical trial it was a summary determined after the event to see what conclusions could be drawn
Participants were tested for covid-19 and provided standardized info
There is quite alot of detail in the study. For example it did seek to identify some other medical conditions people had and also if they shared accommodation with an infected crew member, what additional prevention measures were taken etc etc and the set out the results. It is up to the reader to draw some conclusions.
ie the data shows there were higher cases of covid-19 when accommodation was shared with an infected sailor who had tested positive prior to the study.
It also makes reference to 4 main flaws in the study
You can read the study comments in the link below
This report describes a coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak among young adult U.S. service members aboard an aircraft carrier.
www.cdc.gov