Each morning I get out of bed fairly early knowing, with a reasonable certainty that the sun will rise in the east. And, each evening I know with a reasonable certainty that the sun will set in the west.

I know with a reasonable certainty that if I let go of an object it will fall to the floor because gravity makes it so.

How do I know these things?

Not because science told me it is so…but because I have the capability of seeing it with my own eyes. In other words, empirical evidence.

In this past year the Left has been telling us to listen to science. Restaurants and many small businesses were forcibly closed, some to the point of extinction. Most of us followed mask mandates and social distancing rules. We put off celebrating holidays with loved ones and, in many cases, worked remotely from home, isolated from others. The parking lot of my local commuter train station which, prior to this pandemic, was always full by 7:30 or so in the morning still has only 1 or 2 cars in it as I passed it by this morning. Many schools are still on remote or hybrid statuses with students learning capabilities greatly impaired.

We were told by science that these extraordinary measures would only be needed for 2 or 3 weeks to help stop the spread of this virus and to “flatten the curve” so hospitals would not be overwhelmed. In other words, for the most part, we listened to science. Yet, empirical evidence clearly and indisputably showed us the despite following what we were being told to do the virus continued to grow and spread and people continued to be hospitalized and die.

Two weeks has now become 1 full year with far-reaching restrictions on our most basic rights. The call of “two weeks to flatten the curve” was nothing more than a wild miscalculation. We listened to science and science was dramatically wrong. Despite all of us following the rules we went from 30,000 new cases a day in April to 60,000 new cases a day in July to 100,000 new cases a day in November to 250,000 new cases a day in December.

Now, science has told us how optimistic we should be with the distribution of vaccines suddenly the White House and the medical advisors aren’t putting out such a rosy picture. We have suddenly gone from “this will all be over soon” to “maybe we can have a small gathering outdoors on July 4th.”

I will be the first to recognize how difficult it has been to balance public health with economic health.

So now we have to accept that science isn’t always right and sometimes we have to rely on our empirical observations, even if they are at odds with what the so-called “experts” are telling us. But now the Biden administration has a larger problem they are going to deal with at the end of this.

Ultimately our present problems were not caused by Trump or science, they were caused because the Chinese government lied to us. Once we come to the end of this pandemic we are going to need to make some very consequential decisions on how we are going to treat them considering their complete and total disregard for human life around the globe.

Despite what government and science tell us, our empirical observations are starting to tell us that we are rapidly approaching the end of this pandemic. That means those consequential decisions are going to need to be made soon. This will be the ultimate test that will define the Biden administration.