Fauci was told about questions over COVID-19 vaccine studies and miscarriages, new texts show

WASHINGTON — Dr.Anthony Fauci was privately informed in January 2021 that the initial studies on COVID-19 vaccination did not include women in the first trimester of pregnancy because of miscarriage risk, according to new texts released by Sens.

Rand Paul and Ron Johnson.“I am corrected on pregnancy studies. Initial Studies [sic] avoid vaccination in first trimester due to possible fever and higher rates of miscarriage in first trimester,” Dr.John Mascola texted Fauci on Jan.

25, 2021.Mascola was serving as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center at the time.The full context of the text messages isn’t entirely clear, and it was publicly reported at the time that the vaccine had not been tested on early pregnancies during the initial clinical trials.After Mascola’s message, Fauci said there was a theoretical risk that COVID-19 vaccinations during pregnancy could cause miscarriages due to the potential for a fever.“Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the 2nd dose, this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester,” Fauci wrote.Cytokines storm refers to a severe autoimmune response in which the body produces too many peptides signaling infection, leading the body to attack itself.Days later, on Feb.3, Fauci said during a question-and-answer livestream with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that the FDA “found thus far… no red flags about… pregnant women.”US officials allowed pregnant women to get the vaccine starting in late 2020, deferring to consultation between them and their doctors, while other countries such as the United Kingdom were initially more cautious.However, it wasn’t until later in 2021, after more research was conducted, that pregnant women were actively encouraged to get the vaccine.

There have since been numerous studies, including a British analysis in 2022 and another one in...