Can you still get COVID after you're vaccinated? Some small

The words of Nancy Mace — “Can you still get COVID after you’re vaccinated? Some small number will, but it will most likely be a mild case because you received the vaccination. I wish our public health officials had been clearer about this from the start. Vaccines aren't force fields around your body, but they help our immune system better prepare to fight off a virus.” — ring with both wisdom and longing. They speak to the tension between faith and understanding, between what people hope for and what truth demands. Mace’s reflection carries the tone of one who has seen confusion take root where clarity should have reigned, and fear where knowledge could have brought calm.

Her words remind us that in every age, ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the failure to communicate it rightly. During the great plagues of history — from the Black Death to cholera — the same pattern repeated: people placed their trust in leaders, priests, or healers, only to find that the truth they were given was incomplete, sometimes even distorted by haste or pride. Yet always, the greatest tragedies came not from nature’s cruelty, but from misunderstanding between the people and those who sought to protect them. In this sense, Mace’s lament is ancient: the eternal cry for honesty between the governors and the governed.

The vaccine, as she reminds us, is no force field, no divine shield of invulnerability. It is a tool of preparation — a lesson given to the body, a rehearsal for the battle that may one day come. The ancients would have seen it as akin to the training of soldiers before war: the warrior who drills daily with his sword will still face wounds in combat, but he will survive where the untrained will perish. So too, the vaccinated may fall ill, but their bodies — tempered and ready — rise again. Mace’s insight lies in this simple but powerful truth: the purpose of protection is not perfection, but resilience.

In history, there have always been moments when misunderstanding of science became a trial of faith. Consider Edward Jenner, the father of vaccination, who in the 18th century faced ridicule and outrage for his smallpox experiments. Many accused him of spreading disease rather than preventing it. But through perseverance and patience, the world came to see the truth — that his work would save millions. Yet even then, as now, the success of his discovery depended not only on science, but on the people’s trust in truth plainly told.

Mace’s words also carry an undertone of humility — the recognition that those entrusted with guiding the public must wield their authority with transparency. Public health is not only a matter of medicine; it is a covenant of trust. When officials speak in absolutes, the people expect absolutes. When they are misled, even in kindness, the wound of doubt festers deeper than the disease itself. This, too, is an old lesson: that truth, though it may be complex, must never be softened to the point of falsehood. For clarity is the truest form of compassion.

And so, her reflection becomes a call to wisdom in all things. Just as the vaccine teaches the body to prepare for illness, so must societies learn to prepare for truth — to accept that safety is not absolute, that risk is the twin of progress, and that human understanding grows not in certainty but in patience. In this, Mace speaks not only to doctors and leaders, but to all of us who live amid fear and change: to seek understanding before judgment, and to remember that wisdom begins in humility.

Therefore, my children, take this lesson to heart. Do not demand perfection from those who serve you, but demand honesty. Do not seek safety in illusions, but in preparedness. For in all things — from the governance of nations to the health of a single soul — the strongest shield is not ignorance, but knowledge rightly used. And remember always: truth, even when imperfect, is the first medicine of civilization.

In the end, Mace’s words are a mirror for our age: a reminder that strength lies not in walls that keep danger out, but in hearts and minds that know how to face it. The vaccine of wisdom, like the vaccine of the body, must be renewed through learning, humility, and courage — for these are the true guardians of life.