This is the last print issue of the Washington Examiner magazine of 2020, which invites rumination on the 12 months we’ve just gone through and also prompts thoughts about what lies ahead.

Last week, I said 2020 was a pestilential year, a literal truth from which few will demur even if the description is interpreted in a figurative sense. COVID-19 has accounted for more than 300,000 deaths, and attendant lockdowns will kill even more businesses than that. Many people’s livelihoods have been destroyed and their savings vaporized. The fortunate fact that America’s economy has proved wonderfully robust, and with vaccines now being administered should strengthen yet further, does not extenuate the disaster that the pandemic has been for many.