More than 34,000 text messages from former director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Anthony Fauci’s government-issued phone in 2021 have been made public, according to an Aug. 10 statement from Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Among the newly released records are four pages of timestamped screenshots of exchanges between Dr. Fauci and government officials, including U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD and then-acting U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky, MD that reveals Fauci privately worried about the risk of COVID shots causing miscarriages.1
In the private exchanges, Fauci acknowledged there was limited data on the safety of giving COVID-19 shots during pregnancy and raised the possibility that fever and strong inflammatory responses following mRNA COVID shots could theoretically cause miscarriage in the first trimester of pregnancy.
On Jan. 25, 2021, Fauci said via text:
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.2
Dr. Walensky, who served as director of the CDC from January 2021 to June 2023, replied, “Definitely a good point, esp after dose two.”3 In what amounts to an acknowledgment that in early 2021 there was litte data about the safety of giving pregnant women the COVID shot but he thought it was worth the risk, the following day, Fauci said in a text message that “in any vaccine in which data are lacking in pregnant women one must weigh the potential risks against the benefits.”4
Fauci Raises Concern About Potentially Life-Threatening Cytokine Storm Following Second COVID-19 Dose
Dr. Murthy was also included in the text exchange, telling Fauci and Walensky, “I’ve been hearing the concern about the mRNA causing mutations in the developing fetus as well. That’s a really good point re the cytokine storm post second dose.”5
A cytokine storm is a potentially life-threatening over-reactive inflammatory immune response. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “A cytokine storm is a severe complication of certain infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders. It can cause life-threatening inflammation. It happens when your immune system makes and releases large numbers of cytokines. Cytokines are proteins. They’re part of your immune system’s response system.<6
CDC Recommended COVID Shots for Pregnant Women Months After Fauci Text Messages
Despite Fauci acknowledging in January 2021 a lack of human safety data for pregnant women given the COVID shot and raising a theoretical first-trimester miscarriage concern linked with a cytokine storm response, seven months later the CDC recommended in August 2021 that pregnant women should receive COVID shots. “I would say if you’re pregnant, not only is it a good idea to get the vaccine on the basis of safety, but it’s highly effective and important because you are at increased risk of bad outcomes if you get COVID,” said Murthy.7
Surgeon General Says WHO Recommendation Against COVID Injections for Pregnant Women Could Be “Damaging to Public Confidence”
In a separate exchange, Fauci and Murthy discussed the World Health Organization (WHO) at the time recommending against COVID shots for pregnant women. “I was surprised to see WHO put out a strong like saying they do not recommend moderna in pregnant women. That’s a strong statement to make a potentially quite damaging to public confidence among pregnant women,” Murthy said on Jan. 26, 2021.”8
Fauci, in the preceding message, said, “The FDA and the ACIP and the ACOG are all permissive for pregnant women to have a choice. Animal tox studies did not raise any red flags.9
Fauci Points to Animal Toxicity Studies as Evidence of COVID Shot Safety
Findings from animal studies do not always predict how a drug or biological product will affect humans. Mike Leavitt, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services said in 2006, “Currently, nine out of ten experimental drugs fail in clinical studies because we cannot accurately predict how they will behave in people based on laboratory and animal studies.”10
In May 2025, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced that the CDC would no longer recommend COVID shots for pregnant women and healthy children. However, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) continued recommending vaccination during pregnancy.11
“With the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, it is time to move forward,” Vianca N. Rodriguez Feliciano, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), said in an email at the time. “HHS and the CDC remain committed to gold standard science and to ensuring the health and well-being of all Americans—especially our nation’s children—using common sense.”12
Growing Body of Research Evaluates Reproductive Outcomes Following mRNA COVID Shots
A 2025 study analyzing reports submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) found that all 37 pregnancy, fetal and newborn adverse events examined following COVID shots exceeded the study authors’ statistical thresholds for a vaccine safety signal when compared with reports following influenza and other vaccines.13
Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher, MPH said of the findings in a Aug. 10 Substack post, “In simple terms, official CDC/FDA data showed miscarriage was reported far more disproportionately after COVID-19 vaccination than after other vaccines—creating an unusually large safety signal.” Hulscher continued, “While senior federal health officials were privately discussing miscarriage risk in January 2021, they went on to aggressively push COVID-19 mRNA injections during pregnancy. Years later, a peer-reviewed analysis found all 37 pregnancy and newborn adverse events examined breached safety-signal thresholds. That is diabolical.”14
Other researchers have examined possible associations between COVID injections and fertility, pregnancy and birth outcomes. According to published research by European scientists, birth rates declined in 19 countries following the rollout of mRNA COVID shots.
Other published studies, including one conducted in Israel and one in the Czech Republic, evaluated reproductive outcomes following COVID shots, finding that COVID shots administered during pregnancy were associated with higher-than-expected rates of pregnancy loss, with many losses occurring later in gestation, including after 20 weeks; and that women who received a COVID shot prior to conception had lower rates of successful pregnancy compared with those who had not received one, respectively.15 16 17
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Click here to view References:1 U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Senators Johnson, Paul Release Initial Texts from Dr. Fauci’s Government iPhone. Aug. 10, 2026.
2 U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Text Messages from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Government iPhone. Jan. 25-26, 2021. pp. 1, 3.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Cleveland Clinic. Cytokine Storm: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment. Feb. 9, 2026.
7 Bayer M. CDC now recommends pregnant people get vaccinated. CBS News Aug. 11, 2021.
8 U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Text Messages from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Government iPhone. Jan. 25-26, 2021. p. 4.
9 Ibid.
10 Van Norman GA. Limitations of Animal Studies for Predicting Toxicity in Clinical Trials: Is it Time to Rethink Our Current Approach? JACC Basic Transl Sci 2019; 4(7): 845-854.
11 CBS News. RFK Jr. says CDC will no longer recommend COVID vaccines for healthy children, pregnant women. May 27, 2025.
12 Ibid.
13 Thorp JA, Benavides A, Thorp MM, McDyer DC, Biss KO, Threet JA, McCullough PA. Are COVID-19 Vaccines in Pregnancy as Safe and Effective as the Medical Industrial Complex Claim? Part I. Science, Public Health Policy and the Law Feb. 8, 2025.
14 Hulscher N. Newly Released Fauci Texts Reveal Private Concerns Over Miscarriage Risk From COVID-19 Vaccination During Pregnancy. The Focal Points Aug. 11, 2026.
15 Baker A. U.S. Fertility Rates Near Historic Lows. The Vaccine Reaction Apr. 21, 2026.
16 Guetzkow J et al. Observed-to-Expected Fetal Losses Following mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination in Early Pregnancy. medRxiv June 20, 2025.
17 Manniche V et al. Rates of successful conceptions according to COVID-19 vaccination status: Data from the Czech Republic. International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine November 2025; 36(4): 302-306.
One Response
Regardless of how things turned out, pregnant women should have been informed of the discussions. And the WHO’s recommendation. It is called informed consent for a reason. The patient discusses everything with her doctor and they reach a decision based on risk vs reward. Science is not done by crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.
There is also a thing called the Precautionary Principle. Which was completely ignored during COVID. For pregnant women and for young men. ACIP RECOMMENDED AGAINST boosters for you men based on safety signals concerning for myocarditis. Fauci took great pleasure in having convinced Walensky to overrule ACIP. But, science!