The release of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s personal musings, private communications, and messaging history by Senate Republicans has proved fertile ground to revive right-wing hysteria and antipathy toward the man who became the face of the nation’s Covid-19 response.
On Monday, the New York Post published an article claiming that Fauci “privately warned of miscarriage risk linked to COVID vaccine while publicly claiming no issues.” The article was based on messages from January 2021, obtained and released by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), in which Fauci spoke to former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy reports that the Covid-19 vaccine could potentially carry a miscarriage risk for pregnant women.
Right wingers, already looking for an excuse to prosecute Fauci, seized on the messages, claiming they were proof that the virologist and other officials in charge of the Covid response “knew they were harming and killing babies,” as Kate Johnson, the wife of influencer Benny Johnson, put it. Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), wrote that it was time to “PUT FAUCI IN JAIL,” noting that she had had a miscarriage during the pandemic. NewsNation host Katie Pavlich — formerly of Fox News — described the vaccines as an effective “abortion shot,” citing a repeatedly debunked misinterpretation of vaccine data.
Several Republican lawmakers jumped into the dogpile. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) wrote on X that “Dr. Fauci knew COVID-19 vaccines caused miscarriages and forced it on the American public anyways. This is a crime against humanity and the most evil thing that could’ve ever been done.” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote, “Can you hear that sound … of personal-injury lawyers preparing lawsuits against Fauci and Walensky?”
Years of scientific data related to the vaccines have now clearly established that there is no increased risk of miscarriage to pregnant women who received or plan to receive the Covid-19 vaccination. But in January 2021, less than a year into the pandemic and months into the rollout of the newly created vaccine, that was less clear cut. In early 2021, pregnant women were on the CDC’s list of demographics with a higher risk of complications from Covid infection.
On January 25, 2021, Murthy texted Fauci and Walensky, asking if he was “aware of any data or theoretical reason why vaccinating early vs. late in pregnancy could be preferred? And any sense of when there will be more robust data on vaccine risk in pregnant women?”
“I’ve been telling pregnant women that there hasn’t been any evidence of concerning outcomes in the [vaccine] trials, though the number of pregnant subjects [would] likely have been limited,” Murthy added.
Walensky responded first, noting that the CDC had implemented a registry and monitoring protocol to collect data on pregnant women who received the vaccine. Fauci then added while there was currently “no data or theoretical reason” to prefer vaccinating early or later in pregnancy, he had heard unfounded concerns over the potential effects of “injecting a ‘genetic’ vaccine very early in pregnancy,” which did not carry an inherent risk to a developing fetus.
“I asked around a bit more and another issue came up that you need to be aware of,” Fauci wrote in a follow-up message to Murthy and Walensky, who were both responsible for crafting public recommendations and policies related to the pandemic response. “Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the second dose, this could theoretically be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
Fauci was asked a question, gave an assessment, and then followed up with additional, clarifying information after consulting with others in his field. A similar exchange took place the next day, when Fauci was asked by Murthy for his “take” on the World Health Organization (WHO) advising pregnant women to avoid the Moderna variant of the vaccine, due to a lack of data about potential complications. Murthy noted in the exchange that the announcement had surprised him, and could potentially damage “public confidence among pregnant women.”
”I would say that in any vaccine in which data are lacking in pregnant women one must weight the potential risks against the benefits,” Fauci replied. “COVID-19 can be a serious disease especially in pregnancy.” He noted that over 10,000 women had been vaccinated following the emergency authorization of the vaccines, and “no issues have arisen.”
He added that the guidelines set by the FDA, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are “all permissive for pregnant women to have a choice.”
This is all in line with the guidance being put out by health organizations around that same time. Physicians have long known that high fevers can be harmful to early pregnancies. In February 2021, less than a month after the text exchange, Fauci told an interviewer that “the FDA, as part of the typical follow up you have following the initial issuing of any [emergency use authorization] have found […] no red flags about that, about pregnant women,”
Contemporaneous news articles from early 2021 note that the CDC advised pregnant women to speak with their doctors about the potential risks and benefits of the vaccine before making their decision.
Still, five years after the fact and amid a resurgence in general vaccine skepticism, the far right is once again twisting data and out of context quotes to foment conspiracies and public distrust in the health system. One claim, initially made by Senator Johnson and then circulated throughout conservative social media spaces, asserted that the rate of spontaneous abortions in a study of women who received the vaccine during their first trimester was 82 percent, citing a letter from Dr. James A Thorp, a Florida-based gynecologist who has repeatedly spread misinformation about the vaccine.
The claim was so absurd that even some of the most notorious peddlers of Covid-19 misinformation during the pandemic called it out as false. Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter who pivoted to medical conspiracies during the pandemic, noted on social media that the claim was “fiction.”
“If it were true the birthrate in mRNA countries would have dropped to near zero in 2021 and 2022,” he wrote. “Please don’t lie about this, it’s too important.”
Elon Musk’s sometimes-a-Nazi AI model Grok also called out the misinformation, responding to users asking for verification that “the 82 percent figure is a miscalculation from interim NEJM v-safe data.” The bot noted that the rates of miscarriages reported in the final, verified calculations, was roughly 12 percent, well within the rate of the general population and that “no excess loss” could be attributed to the vaccine.
Of course, this is all part of the longstanding effort by the right — spearheaded by Senator Paul — to find a pretext for the prosecution and scapegoating of Fauci. Earlier this month, Senate Republicans moved to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress after he exercised his Fifth Amendment right during a hearing.
In addition, the Trump administration moved on Monday to force a rewrite of the nation’s recommended childhood vaccine schedule via executive order. Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed a slew of vaccinations — including hepatitis, RSV, meningococcus, Covid-19, and influenza — from the standard recommendations for children. It would also split the combined measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate vaccines given at three separate doctors visits, for no scientific reason.
Fear not America, the president is confident. “Nothing bad can happen from what we’re doing,” he told reporters on Monday. “We’re going to learn a lot.”