Newly Released Texts Show Fauci Privately Raised Miscarriage Risk from COVID Vaccine While Publicly Citing No Red Flags

Newly released text messages from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s government-issued cellphone reveal that in late January 2021 the then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases privately discussed a risk that reactions to the second dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines could be associated with first-trimester miscarriage, even as he publicly stated days later that regulators had seen no red flags for pregnant women.

The messages, made public on August 10, 2026, by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), come from a larger trove of more than 34,000 text messages and 522 voicemails recovered from Fauci’s official iPhone as part of ongoing Senate investigations into the federal COVID-19 response.

In a January 25, 2021, exchange with then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and Vivek Murthy (who would soon become surgeon general), the officials discussed potential risks of vaccinating during pregnancy and whether timing within pregnancy mattered. After initially stating there was no data or theoretical reason to prefer vaccination earlier or later in pregnancy, Fauci followed up: “I asked around a bit more and another issue came up that you need to be aware of. Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the 2nd dose, this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”

Walensky responded, “Definitely a good point, esp after dose two.” Murthy noted that he had also been hearing concerns “about the mRNA causing mutations in the developing fetus as well,” describing Fauci’s cytokine-storm point as helpful.

Nine days later, on February 3, 2021, during a public livestream question-and-answer session hosted by the Journal of the American Medical Association, Fauci addressed vaccine safety for pregnant women. He stated that the Food and Drug Administration had “found thus far, and we have to be careful, but thus far no red flags about that, about pregnant women.”

Subsequent public comments by Fauci continued to emphasize the absence of concerning signals. In August 2021 he told a pregnancy expert that follow-up data on tens of thousands of vaccinated pregnant women showed “no indication whatsoever that there’s any increase of any adverse issues in a pregnant woman who was vaccinated compared to a pregnant woman who wasn’t vaccinated.”

The released texts do not indicate that officials had identified an actual elevated rate of miscarriage at the time; the discussion centered on a theoretical concern tied to the fever and cytokine responses commonly observed after the second mRNA dose, at a moment when pregnancy-specific safety data remained limited. Murthy separately expressed surprise at a World Health Organization statement that recommended against the Moderna vaccine for most pregnant women unless they faced high exposure risk, calling the WHO language potentially damaging to public confidence.

Johnson and Paul described the release as the first installment from the recovered phone records. The senators have been examining Fauci’s role in pandemic decision-making, vaccine policy, and related communications. Fauci has previously declined to answer certain questions under oath, invoking the Fifth Amendment during a July 2026 Senate hearing.

The contrast between the private January 25 discussion of a theoretical first-trimester miscarriage risk linked to vaccine side effects and the public reassurances that followed has drawn renewed scrutiny of how risks were communicated to the public and to pregnant women during the early vaccine rollout. Further releases from the phone records are expected as the Senate investigations continue.