August 11, 2026 09:00 AM PST
(PenniesToSave.com) – On Monday, August 10, 2026, two United States senators published eleven text messages pulled from a federal health official’s government issued phone. The messages concern advice given to pregnant women during the earliest weeks of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released the exchange as the first tranche from a much larger set [2].
The scale is worth establishing up front, because much of the coverage has blurred it. The Department of Health and Human Services produced the contents of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s government issued iPhone on August 5, 2026, in response to Johnson’s request. The device holds more than 34,000 text messages and 522 voicemails [2]. Eleven of those texts were made public [3][4].
The exchange dates to January 25 and 26, 2021, several days after the presidential transition and roughly a month after the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines received emergency use authorization [4]. That timing matters for judging the messages fairly. The question the release raises is not simply what one official believed in a private moment. It is whether the uncertainty officials discussed among themselves reached the families who were being asked to act on their advice.
Quick Links
- What Do the Newly Released Texts Actually Say?
- What Did Officials Tell the Public in the Months That Followed?
- Why Are the Miscarriage Numbers in Dispute?
- What Does the Investigation Look Like From Here?
- What Does This Mean for Families Making Medical Decisions?
What Do the Newly Released Texts Actually Say?
The chain opens on the afternoon of January 25, 2021. Dr. Vivek Murthy, who would later serve as Surgeon General, asked Fauci and then Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky whether there was any data or theoretical reason to prefer vaccinating a woman earlier or later in pregnancy. Murthy added that he had been telling pregnant women there was no evidence of concerning adverse outcomes in the trials, while acknowledging that the number of pregnant subjects had likely been limited [1].
Walensky replied that the area was largely data free and described the CDC’s v-safe pregnancy registry, which she said had more than 15,000 pregnant women enrolled at that point [1][4]. Fauci agreed there was no data or theoretical reason to prefer early over later vaccination [1][3].
Roughly twenty five minutes later, Fauci sent a second message saying he had asked around further and that another issue had come up. Because many people experience significant cytokine storm and fever after the second dose, he wrote, that reaction “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester” [1]. Walensky answered that it was a good point, especially after dose two [1][3].
The exact wording in the document is narrower than several headlines circulating about it.
The same chain contains material that cuts the other way. Fauci pushed back on the idea that mRNA vaccines could alter a recipient’s genes, calling it a misperception that heightened anxiety when people extended it to a developing fetus [1]. The following day, after the World Health Organization advised against Moderna for pregnant women, Fauci wrote that where data are lacking one must weigh potential risks against benefits, noted that COVID-19 can be serious in pregnancy, and said more than 10,000 pregnant women had been vaccinated since the emergency authorization with no issues arising [1][3][4].
What Did Officials Tell the Public in the Months That Followed?
The senators paired the private exchange with a dated list of public statements. Nine days after the text chain, on February 3, 2021, Fauci said during a question and answer livestream hosted by the Journal of the American Medical Association that the Food and Drug Administration had found “no red flags about that, about pregnant women” [2][6].
The list continues from there. On August 11, 2021, the CDC’s Sascha Ellington said the agency was not seeing a safety signal in pregnancy. On August 30, 2021, Fauci said tens of thousands of pregnant women followed by the CDC showed no indication of increased adverse issues and that it was clear pregnant women should be vaccinated. On September 29, 2021, Walensky and the CDC issued a health alert strongly recommending vaccination before or during pregnancy. On February 1, 2022, Murthy, by then Surgeon General, said any point in pregnancy was fine and the recommendation was simply to get it [2][6].
Johnson told Fox News Digital that the first release is “the tip of the iceberg” and alleged that Fauci said one thing privately while carrying a different message to the public [5]. That is an allegation from a senator running an active investigation, and it deserves to be labeled as one.
Fauci has not answered the substance of the texts. CNN, CBS News, Fox News Digital, and the New York Post each report seeking comment without receiving a substantive reply [3][4][5]. Johnson said Monday that Fauci’s attorneys have contacted his office and that he has invited Fauci for a transcribed interview, adding that he will issue a subpoena if the interview is not arranged voluntarily [6]. It is also fair to note that the seven month gap between the January uncertainty and the August 2021 recommendation coincided with a period of active data collection, which is the rationale the CDC gave at the time [4].
Why Are the Miscarriage Numbers in Dispute?
A striking figure has traveled alongside this story, and it deserves to be laid out plainly rather than repeated. The underlying research is a paper by Shimabukuro and colleagues published in the New England Journal of Medicine on June 17, 2021. It reported 104 spontaneous abortions among 827 pregnancies exposed to mRNA vaccines, a rate of 12.6 percent [2][5].
The reanalysis works like this. Of the 827 women, 700 received the injection in the third trimester, after 28 weeks. A spontaneous abortion is defined as a loss before 20 weeks, so those 700 could not have contributed to the count. Removing them leaves 104 divided by 127, which produces roughly 82 percent [2][5].
Two things about that number matter. First, its authorship is contested in the record itself. Johnson’s office presents it as the work of Dr. James A. Thorp, a maternal fetal medicine specialist, in a January 12, 2022 open letter to the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology [2]. Johnson performs the same calculation himself in his Fox News Digital interview without naming Thorp [5]. Second, an open letter is not peer reviewed research, and the broader study record points the other way. CNN reports that the CDC analyzed data and found no increased risk of miscarriage before issuing its August 2021 recommendation [3], and CBS News reports the CDC citing studies covering more than a million pregnant women that found no increased health risks for mothers or babies [4].
Readers are better served by seeing the arithmetic, the objection, and the counter evidence than by being handed a verdict.
There is one further wrinkle. Johnson has separately accused Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, former director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office and an author of the disputed paper, of deleting emails about adverse vaccine reactions [6]. That accusation is unproven, and it has not been tested. It is included here because the overlap between the two disputes is a fact readers should have, not because it settles anything.
What Does the Investigation Look Like From Here?
The text release lands in the middle of an escalating standoff. At a July 29, 2026 hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee covering the pandemic and federally funded gain of function research, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self incrimination. CNN reports he did so more than 100 times, and CBS News reports he did so in response to every question [3][4][6].
The committee then voted to hold him in contempt of Congress, with Republicans arguing that a Biden era pardon had removed his exposure to criminal prosecution and therefore his basis for declining to answer [3][4]. Fauci’s attorney told CBS News that his client had “solid legal ground” for invoking the Fifth Amendment [4]. Paul has since referred the matter to the Department of Justice [5][6].
Asked Monday whether he had discussed a potential prosecution with Attorney General Todd Blanche or District of Columbia United States Attorney Jeanine Pirro, President Trump told reporters, “I have not spoken to them about that, no” [6].
A great deal remains unreviewed. The senators note that only three contacts are listed by name on the device, with all other messages identified only by phone number, and they state plainly that it is too early to determine whether any data has been deleted [2][6]. Johnson has said he is withholding personal information and material unrelated to public health, and that more releases are coming [5]. Separately, Paul’s office previously released more than 1,100 pages of Fauci’s diary covering 2019 through 2022 [3][4].
What Does This Mean for Families Making Medical Decisions?
The senators frame the release around informed consent, and that framing is the part with staying power [2][5]. Private deliberation among officials is normal and expected. Public health leaders are supposed to argue over incomplete data before recommending anything. The question worth asking is narrower and more durable. When officials are uncertain, does that uncertainty reach the people who carry the outcome?
That question has practical weight right now, because the guidance itself is not settled. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as of this spring still recommends annual COVID-19 vaccination for people who are pregnant or who will be pregnant during the fall or winter [3]. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last year that the CDC would no longer recommend the vaccines for pregnant women and healthy children [4]. Two respected bodies, two positions, both current.
The release also arrived the same day President Trump signed an executive order revising federal childhood vaccine recommendations, which guarantees the story more attention than a document dump would normally draw. That is a coincidence of timing, not evidence of anything.
For a household, the usable action is straightforward. Ask your own physician what is actually known, what remains uncertain, and what the recommendation rests on. That conversation is worth having regardless of how the Senate investigation resolves. Pregnancy and delivery also rank among the largest medical expenses an American family will face, and families who end up carrying balances from that care are usually better off with a deliberate plan for paying down medical debt than with a wait and see approach.
Final Thoughts
Eleven messages out of more than 34,000 is a thin slice, and anyone claiming this settles the argument is getting ahead of the record. Fauci has not responded to the substance. The 82 percent figure is a contested reanalysis, not a finding. The deletion accusations are unproven.
What the documents do show, in the officials’ own words, is that a real concern was raised privately in January 2021 and that public messaging in the months that followed was considerably more confident than the private conversation had been. Reasonable people can disagree about whether the intervening data justified that shift. What is harder to argue is that the public had no interest in seeing the deliberation.
Records that shape household medical decisions belong in public view, and that standard should hold no matter which administration is producing them.
The instinct behind all of this is a healthy one. Asking a doctor for the reasoning behind a recommendation, rather than accepting the conclusion alone, is the same instinct that serves people well with money, where a handful of practical saving steps you understand tend to outperform advice you simply took on faith.
Works Cited
[1] Text messages between Anthony S. Fauci, Rochelle Walensky, and Vivek Murthy, 25-26 Jan. 2021. Released by Sens. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul, Office of U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, 10 Aug. 2026, www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/text-message-Fauci-redacted_Redacted.pdf.
[2] “Senators Johnson, Paul Release Initial Texts from Dr. Fauci’s Government iPhone.” Office of U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, 10 Aug. 2026, www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/2026/08/10/senators-johnson-paul-release-initial-texts-from-dr-faucis-government-iphone-2/.
[3] Yeung, Jessie. “Republican Senators Release Fauci’s Text Messages Discussing Safety of Covid Vaccine and Pregnancy.” CNN, 11 Aug. 2026, www.cnn.com/2026/08/11/politics/fauci-text-messages-released-covid-vaccine-pregnancy-hnk.
[4] Walsh, Joe. “Fauci Discussed Potential Risks, Benefits of COVID Vaccine for Pregnant Women in 2021 Texts Released by GOP Senators.” CBS News, 10 Aug. 2026, www.cbsnews.com/news/fauci-texts-covid-vaccine-pregnant-women-gop-rand-paul-ron-johnson/.
[5] Miller, Alex. “Fauci in the Hot Seat as GOP Senator Tears into ‘Truly Sick’ Vaccine Texts: ‘Tip of the Iceberg.'” Fox News, 10 Aug. 2026, www.foxnews.com/politics/fauci-hot-seat-gop-senator-tears-truly-sick-vaccine-texts-tip-iceberg.
[6] Christenson, Josh. “Fauci Privately Warned of Miscarriage Risk Linked to COVID Vaccine While Publicly Claiming No Issues, Newly Released Texts Show.” New York Post, 10 Aug. 2026, nypost.com/2026/08/10/us-news/fauci-warned-of-miscarriage-risk-linked-to-covid-vaccine-while-publicly-claiming-no-issues-newly-released-texts-show/.