One of the great ironies exposed during the coronavirus pandemic is the professed dedication to Science™ from the same people suppressing scientific debate.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines science as a noun meaning “the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.” In other words, to paraphrase the great “scientist” Steven Tyler from the rock band Aerosmith, science is often a journey, not a destination.

Some science is settled, of course, like the fact that there are two biological sexes, or that life begins at conception. The usual suspects suppress or reject that science. Other science is still undetermined because the subject matter is relatively new.

Take COVID vaccines, for instance.

It was an impressive feat of scientific achievement that multiple vaccines were developed last year in record time. Much credit goes to President Donald Trump for initiating Operation Warp Speed — never mind President Joe Biden’s disgraceful attempts to take credit. More on that in a moment.

Yet because these vaccines were developed using new mRNA technology, and they were designed to fight a novel virus, the short clinical testing and emergency approval left a lot of questions unanswered. For example: How does this vaccine perform in the population at large? What are the side effects, and how dangerous are they? Should people who’ve had COVID still get the vaccine?

As Mark Alexander wrote last week: “Understanding the increased incidence of myocarditis in ages 16 to 24 is particularly important given the growing chorus of secondary schools and colleges requiring vaccination as a condition of attendance. Likewise, many employers of young people may mandate the vaccine as a term of employment.”

A study in Norway is attempting to determine correlation or causation in the deaths of 100 nursing home residents who received the Pfizer vaccine. It was “likely” a factor in 10 deaths, and “possibly” a factor in another 26. Serious questions like these deserve investigation and open and honest answers.

The only thing anyone can do is make a choice based on the best information possible. But when information is suppressed because of the political bent of social media platforms or news organizations, we’re left with less information than we need.

It’s little surprise, therefore, that after the initial surge in vaccination among the American population, the rate has tailed off dramatically. In fact, as we noted, Biden has on multiple occasions wrongly taken credit for getting so many Americans vaccinated so quickly. In the first couple of months after he took office, all he had to do was not drop the baton Trump handed him.

Maintaining the pace, however, was Biden’s responsibility — at least insofar as a president even plays a role in private medical decisions, which is perhaps an entirely different story.

Well, on Tuesday, the White House quietly conceded that the U.S. will not reach Biden’s goal of vaccinating 70% of American adults by July 4. This was the only goal for which Biden has been truly responsible, and he couldn’t meet it.

The most hesitant group is adults age 18-26 — the only demographic that will not hit 70%, and also the reason for the overall shortfall. We’ll make a few brief bulleted points:

• The virus has roughly a 99.994% survivability rate among people age 20-24, and that’s if they’re among the one in 10 Americans of any age who’ve even contracted the virus.

• Young people generally see themselves as somewhat invincible, yet this age group is also the most fearful of COVID. This fear manifests as both vaccine hesitancy and mask dependency.

• Vaccine advocates like Joe Biden have for months sent mixed signals that life won’t really change much after getting “the jab.” So, many wonder, why become a guinea pig?

• The aforementioned mandates among schools and employers — with the accompanying lost jobs and even criminal charges — naturally make some people all the more resistant to submission. (This is America, after all.) The same was the case with isolation, masks, etc., but it’s even more true of an emergency-approved and still unsettled vaccine.

To tie it all together, taking vaccines is and should be in most cases a personal decision. That decision should be informed by as much non-politicized information as possible. And that information should be readily accessible, not suppressed by platforms that falsely claim to have your best interests at heart. As with so many things, the dishonest and often tyrannical response to COVID has undermined these basic truths.