Sens. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul released an initial batch of records from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s government-issued phone, including January 2021 messages in which Fauci, Rochelle Walensky and Vivek Murthy discussed COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and a theoretical miscarriage risk associated with post-vaccination fever.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., released the first batch of text messages recovered from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s government-issued phone, including a January 2021 discussion about COVID-19 mRNA vaccination during pregnancy.
Text Message Fauci Redacted Redacted by yourNEWS Media
Johnson’s office said Fauci’s phone contained more than 34,000 text messages and 522 voicemails. Johnson obtained the device from the Department of Health and Human Services and plans to release additional material.
Among the messages made public Monday was an exchange involving Fauci, then-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Dr. Vivek Murthy, who later served as surgeon general under President Joe Biden.
The conversation, reported by Fox News, focused on whether pregnant women should receive a COVID-19 vaccine earlier or later in pregnancy, what evidence existed regarding adverse outcomes and how officials should address concerns about mRNA vaccines.
Murthy asked whether there was any reason to favor vaccination at one point in pregnancy over another and whether officials had seen adverse outcomes among pregnant women who had already been vaccinated.
Fauci responded that there were “no data or theoretical reason” to believe vaccination earlier in pregnancy should be preferred over later vaccination.
He also sought to dispel what the group described as “misperceptions” that an mRNA vaccine could “get into your genes,” saying the vaccines could not alter a person’s genetic material.
Later in the exchange, however, Fauci raised a separate concern involving reactions that can occur after the second vaccine dose.
Because many recipients experience significant cytokine-related symptoms and fever following the second shot, Fauci wrote that the reaction “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
Walensky replied that it was “definitely a good point, esp after dose two.”
Murthy said he had been hearing concerns that mRNA vaccines could cause mutations in a developing fetus and described Fauci’s observation about the cytokine response following the second dose as “a really good point.”
The following day, Murthy alerted the group to a World Health Organization recommendation at the time advising against use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in pregnant women because of limited available data.
Fauci responded by emphasizing that potential vaccine risks needed to be weighed against the risks posed by COVID-19 infection.
He wrote that more than 10,000 pregnant women had already received COVID-19 vaccines with “no issues” reported.
Fauci also pointed to guidance from the Food and Drug Administration, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, all of which allowed pregnant women to choose vaccination.
He further noted that animal toxicology studies had not produced warning signs.
Murthy said the WHO recommendation surprised him and cautioned that strongly recommending against vaccination because of limited data could be “potentially quite damaging to public confidence among pregnant women.”
Walensky agreed and said she would raise the issue at an upcoming ACIP meeting.
Johnson’s office said the newly released exchange could have “an immediate impact of public health and the principle of informed consent.”
The senators’ release represents the first portion of a much larger collection of communications recovered from Fauci’s government phone, with Johnson’s office indicating that additional text messages and other records will be made public later.
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