I think some knew what they were doing. Others did what they were told, and their work focused on some small part of the vax that kept them in the dark about other elements of the chemical cocktail.

In every company I've ever been in, there's always been secrets and activities that only a few were privy to, and some of us could only speculate. It could be anything from personal agendas and infidelities to production issues (like still using hard to source obsolete parts) that no one wanted public to keep the stock price stable. Imagine a large international corporation with dozens of labs in several different countries - all competing to be the one with the break-thru solution.