Newly released text messages show leading Biden administration health officials privately discussing whether COVID 19 vaccination early in pregnancy could raise the risk of miscarriage.
The concerns surfaced [1] during the first week of the Biden presidency, even as officials publicly worked to reassure Americans about vaccine safety.
The messages came from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s government-issued cellphone and were released by Republican Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
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They involved Fauci, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and then Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky.
Murthy asked Fauci and Walensky whether there was “any data or theoretical reason why vaccinating early vs late in pregnancy would be preferred.”
The question went directly to a major uncertainty surrounding pregnant women, a group that had not been meaningfully represented in the original vaccine trials.
Murthy said he had been telling pregnant women there was no “evidence of concerning adverse outcomes in the trials.”
At the same time, he acknowledged that the number of pregnant participants was “likely […] limited,” while Fauci reminded him that “pregnant women were not allowed” in those trials.
Fauci initially described as a “misperception” the concern among some people, including “female health care professionals,” that vaccination “very early in pregnancy” might be harmful.
Within two hours, however, his private assessment became considerably less dismissive.
Fauci told the group he had “asked around a bit more.”
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He said he was warned that the “significant cytokines storm and fever” commonly associated with the second dose “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
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Walensky and Murthy each called the concern a “good point.”
Walensky also said she had heard worries about “mRNA causing mutations in the developing fetus as well,” showing that the questions circulating privately went beyond the narrow issue officials were discussing publicly.
The following day, Murthy reacted with alarm after the World Health Organization recommended that pregnant women avoid the Moderna vaccine “unless they are at risk of high exposure.”
He warned that the recommendation was “potentially quite damaging to public confidence among pregnant women,” and Walensky agreed.
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Fauci sought to calm the group by pointing to vaccinations administered after emergency authorization.
“No issues have arisen,” he wrote, after saying that “more than 10,000” pregnant women had already received a vaccine.
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The messages add fuel to criticism that federal health leaders entertained concerns behind closed doors while people raising similar questions publicly were smeared as dangerous cranks.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said those skeptics were branded anti vaccine and accused of lying or trying to cause COVID deaths.
Murrill told Just the News, No Noise that people “on the ground” could see “rampant and pervasive” problems.
She said her own son spent a week in an intensive care unit with myocarditis after receiving a COVID vaccine.
According to Murrill, “Parents were being told ‘vaccinate your kids’” as young as five. She said officials claimed “that there’s no side effects [..] that myocarditis is not severe and that they bounce back within a few days,” an assertion she called “just frankly not true.”
Murrill argued that pediatric heart specialists understood the seriousness of such cases but feared consequences for speaking candidly.
“I think pediatric cardiologists know this,” she said, while alleging that medical professionals faced threats involving their licenses if they warned parents.
The Louisiana attorney general also pointed to Fauci’s repeated invocation of the Fifth Amendment during recent congressional testimony.
She suspects he did so because “he knows he has exposure in the states,” including Louisiana.
Murrill has pursued a criminal case connected to Fauci’s contemporaneous notes, which she says may conflict with his deposition testimony in Louisiana litigation over federal pressure on social media companies.
That lawsuit challenged government efforts to suppress disfavored claims involving COVID treatments and other pandemic disputes.
“We’re looking at, I’m looking at what Fauci did in the context of our litigation to see whether he lied and whether there are potentially perjury charges that could arise from that,” Murrill said.
Her review places the former federal health official’s sworn statements under renewed scrutiny.
The larger issue is public trust after years of officials presenting certainty to Americans while privately discussing unresolved risks and potentially damaging information.
The public reassurance machine apparently had room for private doubts, just not for ordinary citizens voicing them.
“I think the public needs to hear the truth,” Murrill said.
She added that “we need people to be able to question the science without threat of retaliation from the government,” a basic principle that pandemic era authorities too often treated as an inconvenience.
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