Bombshell texts reveal Fauci privately said COVID-19 vaccine could in theory pose miscarriage risk
The texts occurred weeks before Dr. Anthony Fauci said there were "no red flags" for vaccination during pregnancy, and the senators who publicly released the texts also spotlighted a concern raised by an OB/GYN who argued in 2022 that COVID-19 vaccines posed an 82% miscarriage rate.
U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., revealed Aug. 10 that Dr. Anthony Fauci privately raised a theoretical concern in January 2021 about miscarriage following COVID-19 vaccination, weeks before publicly saying federal regulators had found “no red flags” regarding vaccination during pregnancy.
“I asked around a bit more and another issue came up that you need to be aware of,” Fauci wrote in a Jan. 25, 2021, text. “Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the 2nd dose, this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
“Definitely a good point, esp after dose two,” then-CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky replied.
Johnson’s office published the exchange as part of a series of text messages obtained from Fauci’s government-issued phone. The conversation involved Fauci, Walensky and then-Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.
The discussion began after Murthy asked Fauci and Walensky whether they were aware of data or theoretical reasons to prefer COVID-19 vaccination earlier or later in pregnancy.
In another Jan. 25 message, Fauci said “there are no data or theoretical reason to believe that vaccinating early versus later in pregnancy would be preferred,” while acknowledging concerns among some health care professionals about receiving an mRNA vaccine early in pregnancy.
“There is this misperception out there that we need to deal with,” Fauci wrote, referring to concerns that mRNA could alter a person's genes. “When the misperception gets extended to an early developing fetus, the anxiety heightens.”
Murthy similarly said he had been hearing concerns “about the mRNA causing mutations in the developing fetus as well.”
The conversation continued Jan. 26 after Murthy asked Fauci and Walensky about World Health Organization guidance recommending pregnant women against taking the Moderna vaccine due to lack of data.
Fauci responded that because pregnant women had not been included in the vaccine trials, potential risks had to be weighed against the benefits.
“COVID-19 can be a serious disease especially in pregnancy,” Fauci wrote. He added that more than 10,000 pregnant women had received COVID-19 vaccines following emergency authorization and that “no issues have arisen.”
“The FDA and the ACIP and the ACOG are all permissive for pregnant women to have a choice,” Fauci continued. “Animal tox studies did not raise any red flags.”
Murthy replied that he had reached a similar conclusion but was surprised by the WHO's position, adding, “That’s a strong statement to make and potentially quite damaging to public confidence among pregnant women.”
Fauci's subsequent public comments
The messages were exchanged shortly before Fauci publicly discussed the safety of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, Johnson’s office noted in the press release.
On Feb. 3, 2021, Fauci said publicly the Food and Drug Administration had “found thus far — and we have to be careful — but thus far no red flags” regarding pregnant women, according to Johnson's office.
By August, Fauci pointed to substantially more observational data in recommending vaccination during pregnancy.
“Tens and tens and tens of thousands of women” had been followed by the CDC after receiving a vaccine while pregnant, Fauci said at the time, adding that there was “no indication whatsoever” of increased adverse outcomes among vaccinated pregnant women compared with unvaccinated pregnant women.
“It's pretty clear that pregnant women should get vaccinated,” Fauci said.
Johnson's office argued that the newly released private correspondence “could have an immediate impact on public health and the principle of informed consent.”
Johnson, who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, obtained data from Fauci's government-issued phone as part of the committee's investigation. According to his office, the device contained more than 34,000 text messages and 522 voicemails. Only three contacts were identified by name, while the remainder appeared as phone numbers.
The senator's office cautioned that it remains too early “to determine whether any data has been deleted.”
Later criticism of vaccine and pregnancy data
Johnson's release also highlighted criticism of early research used to assess COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. Dr. James Thorp, an OB/GYN and maternal-fetal medicine specialist, challenged the methodology of a 2021 paper by Shimabukuro et al. published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study included 827 completed pregnancies among participants enrolled in the CDC's v-safe pregnancy registry. Thorp argued that because 700 of the 827 women received their first eligible vaccine dose during the third trimester, they should not have been included in the denominator used to calculate the rate of "spontaneous abortion" or miscarriage, which occurs earlier in pregnancy.
Using a denominator of 127 rather than 827, Thorp argued that the figures would produce an 82% rate rather than the 12.6% initially reported.
NewsNation's Katie Pavlich reacted to the figures Aug. 10 on X, describing the COVID-19 vaccine as “effectively an abortion shot.”
CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt expressed her indignation and sorrow on X after the Aug. 10 revelation: "Words fail. They simply fail. The magnitude of this appalling, sociopathic lying and omission on the part of Fauci and others (especially in light of the nobility of their calling and their oaths to protect human life) is a betrayal which will haunt the soul of this nation and its history for the evil, the heartbreak, and the devastation it wrought on these parents."
