Senators release Fauci texts on COVID vaccine pregnancy concerns

Ron Johnson and Rand Paul released initial texts from Anthony Fauci’s government iPhone, saying the recovered device held more than 34,000 messages. The Senate release highlighted a January 2021 exchange in which Fauci wrote that the second dose of the COVID vaccine “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”

The messages came from a copy of Fauci’s government cellphone and were presented as the first tranche of material Johnson and Paul said they had recovered. Johnson’s office said the phone copy contained 34,000 text messages, 522 voicemails and just three contacts. The text chain included Rochelle Walensky, then CDC director, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as federal health officials discussed COVID vaccination and pregnancy concerns.

The timing matters as much as the wording. The texts were sent in January 2021, when federal officials and medical groups were still working through pregnancy-specific questions as vaccines were rolled out. By April 2021, preliminary findings on mRNA COVID-19 vaccine safety in pregnant persons had been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and later CDC guidance recommended vaccination for pregnant people, breastfeeding people, those trying to get pregnant and those who might become pregnant.

That later guidance is the backdrop for the political fight now surrounding the texts. Johnson, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Paul, who chairs a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee subcommittee, cast the release as part of their ongoing congressional investigation into Fauci’s COVID-era decisions. The new material shows an internal discussion about uncertainty and risk in real time, but it does not by itself change the medical record that followed as evidence accumulated and recommendations moved toward vaccination in pregnancy.

The release lands squarely in a broader battle over how public officials handled COVID policy, especially on questions that affected pregnant women. The texts show that Fauci and other top health officials were weighing the pros and cons before the science and guidance settled, and they put a private cautionary remark at the center of a public political dispute.