Women are sharing deeply personal stories of miscarriages and pregnancy anxiety after newly released government messages revealed that Dr. Anthony Fauci privately discussed a theoretical risk from COVID vaccination during the first trimester—days before publicly reporting that officials had detected “no red flags.”
Meghan McCain demanded criminal consequences after Republican Sens. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul released a small batch of messages recovered from Fauci’s government-issued telephone.
“Put Fauci in jail!” McCain wrote Monday. “I am a woman who was pregnant and had a miscarriage during COVID.”
This is not hyperbole – handcuff, perp walk and put Fauci in a jail cell for the rest of his life. https://t.co/xRZJVS4Ods
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) August 10, 2026
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman disclosed that he and his wife, architect and designer Neri Oxman, endured seven lost pregnancies during the pandemic while attempting to have a second child.
“Neri (and I) had seven miscarriages trying to have a second child during COVID and then the time ran out,” Ackman wrote. “WTF was he thinking?”
Neither McCain nor Ackman established that vaccination caused the losses they described. Their statements reflect the raw anger produced by discovering that government officials privately considered uncertainties many Americans felt they were publicly discouraged from discussing.
Other women made more specific claims about the timing of their losses.
“I miscarried at 12 weeks just five days after a booster,” one woman wrote, adding that a nurse practitioner had pressured her to receive it.
Another person said her daughter suffered two first-trimester miscarriages after taking the original two doses to preserve her employment, before later delivering a healthy child.
Those experiences deserve compassion and investigation where medical records permit. They do not, by themselves, prove what caused an individual miscarriage. Pregnancy loss is tragically common, and large studies conducted since 2021 have not found a higher miscarriage rate among vaccinated women.
The political and ethical question raised by the messages is narrower but still important: Did public-health leaders tell pregnant women as much about the early uncertainty as they told one another?
The messages date from Jan. 25 and 26, 2021, during a private conversation among Fauci, then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.
“I asked around a bit more and another issue came up that you need to be aware of,” Fauci wrote. “Since many people have significant cytokine storm and fever after the second dose, this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the first trimester.”
The term “cytokine storm” usually refers to an excessive immune response. The texts show Fauci raising a biological hypothesis, not reporting evidence that the vaccines were causing miscarriages.
He also told his colleagues there was “no data or theoretical reason” to prefer vaccination early rather than later in pregnancy and noted that animal toxicology studies had not produced warning signs.
The following day, Murthy asked Fauci and Walensky about a World Health Organization advisory against giving Moderna’s vaccine to pregnant women except in certain high-risk circumstances. The WHO cited the lack of adequate pregnancy data—not evidence of demonstrated harm.
“It has led to a flurry of questions,” Murthy wrote. “What is your take? I imagine we will all get asked about this.” Fauci replied that pregnant women had to weigh the potential risks of vaccination against the dangers of COVID itself.
Murthy called the WHO’s language a “strong statement” that was “potentially quite damaging to public confidence among pregnant women.” That comment is likely to fuel the deepest suspicion. Officials were not merely weighing medical evidence. They were already considering how acknowledging uncertainty might affect vaccine confidence.
On Feb. 4, 2021, Fauci told the American Medical Association that federal surveillance involving more than 10,000 vaccinated pregnant women had detected “no red flags thus far.”
Pregnant women had largely been excluded from the original clinical trials, as is common during initial drug testing. The early information therefore came mainly from women—including many health care workers—who became pregnant or chose vaccination after the FDA issued emergency-use authorizations.
That timeline complicates claims that Fauci knowingly concealed proof of harm.
His private message raised a theoretical concern. His public remarks days later described what the limited safety data had shown at that point. Both statements could be scientifically consistent: Experts frequently consider hypothetical risks before data either confirm or fail to detect them. But Fauci’s public phrasing did not convey the full discussion occurring privately.
“No red flags thus far” sounds substantially more reassuring than: We have limited pregnancy data, we are examining whether fever after the second dose could theoretically pose a first-trimester risk, and women should make an individual risk-benefit decision with their doctors.
Pregnant women were owed that whole sentence.
Minnesota television anchor Lindsey Brown offered one of the most measured responses. Brown said she had already suffered two miscarriages when she became pregnant during the vaccine rollout. She felt “enormous pressure” to be vaccinated, partly because she wanted to see her elderly parents.
“I was terrified and skipped dose two while pregnant. I trusted my gut. By the grace of God, Oliver was born healthy,” Brown wrote.
Then she drew the distinction much of the online debate has missed:
“This does NOT prove the vaccine caused miscarriages. That’s not my point.”
“COVID became political, but this shouldn’t be,” she continued. “Pregnant women deserved to know the uncertainties experts discussed privately. You can support vaccines and demand transparency.” Brown said the newly released messages deserve “the same scrutiny given to people who questioned the vaccines at the time.”
That is exactly right. The choice is not between declaring every miscarriage vaccine-caused and pretending officials communicated perfectly. Both extremes evade the evidence.
Multiple large studies and systematic reviews have found no statistically significant increase in miscarriages associated with COVID vaccination.
A 2023 review covering 21 studies and nearly 150,000 women found a 9% pooled miscarriage rate among vaccinated women. Researchers reported no significantly higher risk compared with women who received a placebo or remained unvaccinated.
A Nature Communications analysis of 23 studies involving more than 117,000 vaccinated pregnant women similarly found no increased miscarriage risk. The pooled odds ratio was 1.00—meaning the analyzed data showed no difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.
A later prospective study published in 2024 also reported no association between vaccination during pregnancy and miscarriage between six and 20 weeks.
Miscarriage occurs in roughly 10% to 20% of clinically recognized pregnancies even without vaccination, frequently because of chromosomal abnormalities. When millions of pregnant women receive a vaccine, some losses will occur afterward by coincidence. Determining causation requires comparing rates across large, carefully matched populations—not merely counting reports that followed vaccination.
The CDC’s current guidance says:
“COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy has not been linked to increased health risks for pregnant women or babies.”
The agency now emphasizes individualized decision-making based on the patient’s risk factors. It also warns that COVID infection during pregnancy increases the danger of severe illness, hospitalization, premature birth and stillbirth.
The outrage cannot be separated from how vaccination was imposed.
Journalist Peter Hasson said his pregnant wife had recovered from COVID and possessed antibodies. Her physician and medical-school instructors reportedly considered declining vaccination reasonable, but she still struggled to secure clinical rotations because of her status.
“And so now, to see Fauci had the same concerns she did?” Hasson wrote. “Infuriating.”
Another man said his wife miscarried after receiving shots required to retain her health care job. He noted that both attended Fauci’s alma mater, the College of the Holy Cross, which later named a science complex after him.
“Disgusted,” he wrote.
When government merely offers medical advice, incomplete communication is troubling. When institutions attach employment and education to compliance, incomplete communication becomes far more serious.
Informed consent cannot mean: Here is the approved conclusion; the uncertainties are being discussed in a separate text chain you will read five years later.
Paul and Johnson obtained a backup of Fauci’s government phone from the Department of Health and Human Services. Investigators say it contains more than 34,000 text messages and 522 voicemails.
The senators have so far released fewer than a dozen messages from that enormous archive.
They also noted that the recovered device contained only three saved contacts, raising questions about whether information was deleted or whether the backup is incomplete. The limited contact list alone does not prove Fauci destroyed federal records.
Johnson is seeking transcribed interviews with Fauci and former FDA officials. He has suggested subpoenas could follow if they refuse.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee separately voted to hold Fauci in contempt after he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times during a July hearing. The Justice Department is reviewing Paul’s referral, although legal experts question whether it can proceed without approval from the full Senate.
Fauci’s attorney has been asked to respond to the pregnancy messages.
