COVID & Vaccines
Mace's public positions on COVID-19 mask mandates, vaccine policy, and natural immunity, including statements that shifted as the political environment changed.
Mace calling out Speaker Pelosi's reinstatement of the Capitol mask mandate, 2021. (Source: Rep. Mace's official "Interviews with Nancy," via YouTube.)
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nancy Mace took a vocal libertarian-leaning stance on both mask mandates and vaccine policy. In July 2021 she framed Speaker Pelosi's reinstatement of indoor mask requirements in the Capitol as a "power grab" and publicly refused to comply, while also describing herself as a "proponent of vaccinations" in a November 2021 CNN interview, a position she said was grounded in personal responsibility rather than government coercion.
Also in November 2021, Mace argued on social media that natural immunity was "27 times" more effective than vaccination, citing a then-contested study. Public health officials disputed the figure at the time; the study itself was later criticized for methodological limitations. Mace did not retract the claim.
Her overall posture on COVID placed her in the camp of Republican members who resisted institutional public-health guidance while stopping short of outright vaccine rejection. The dispatches under this topic collect her public statements on the pandemic as she made them.
On the Record
Mace on Fox News: natural immunity gives '27 times more protection' than vaccines
On November 28, 2021, Mace told Fox News that natural immunity provides 27 times more protection against COVID than vaccination, the same day she told CNN she was a proponent of vaccinations and masks.
Mace tells CNN 'I have been a proponent of vaccinations', hours after telling Fox natural immunity is 27x better
On November 28, 2021, Mace presented two contradictory vaccine messages on the same day: telling Fox News that natural immunity is 27 times more protective, then telling CNN she had been a consistent proponent of vaccinations and masks.
Mace posts maskless Capitol video: 'I follow science, not Pelosi. Come and get me.'
On July 29, 2021, Mace posted a video walking maskless through the Capitol to defy the CDC-recommended mask mandate reinstated during the Delta variant surge, calling it an 'insane power grab' by Speaker Pelosi.