Fauci wrote that many recipients could experience a “significant cytokine storm and fever” after the second dose. He then raised a potential theoretical concern involving pregnancy, writing that the reaction “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
That wording has quickly become the center of the controversy.
The texts do not establish that Fauci believed COVID-19 vaccines caused miscarriages, nor do they contain evidence demonstrating that vaccination caused pregnancy losses. The CDC has maintained that COVID-19 vaccination “has not been linked to increased health risks for pregnant women or babies.”
But for women who endured miscarriages during the pandemic, the disclosure has struck a deeply personal nerve.
McCain, who has three children with her husband, Ben Domenech, responded angrily on X after the messages became public.
“Put Fauci in jail! I am a woman who was pregnant and had a miscarriage during COVID,” Meghan McCain, who shares three children with husband Ben Domenech, wrote on X.
Her reaction quickly became part of a much larger online discussion, with women recounting pregnancy losses they experienced during the pandemic and questioning whether possible risks were adequately communicated at the time.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman added his own painful account. Ackman said he and his wife, Neri Oxman, experienced repeated pregnancy losses while attempting to have another child during the pandemic.
“Neri (and I) had seven miscarriages trying to have a second child during Covid and then the time ran out. WTF was he thinking?” Ackman said of Fauci.
The personal stories continued to pour into social media.
One woman, identified as Roxy, said she lost a pregnancy shortly after receiving a booster shot. She also claimed that a medical professional had encouraged her to receive the vaccination.
“I miscarried at 12 weeks just 5 days after a booster. Booster was taken after NP [nurse practitioner] stated she would be more worried about me as a mother if I declined it,” one woman identified as Roxy wrote.
Another woman said her daughter received the first two COVID-19 shots because she wanted to keep her employment. According to the woman’s account, her daughter subsequently suffered two first-trimester miscarriages before eventually giving birth.
“My daughter took the first two shots to keep her job. She had two miscarriages in the first trimester. One in 2023, and another in 2024. Fortunately she had my granddaughter in 2025,” one X user wrote.
Another mother described what she said was the loss of her daughter’s pregnancy at 15 weeks after her daughter was required to receive the vaccine for work.
“My daughter, who was forced to get the va [vaccine] because of her job, lost her second baby at 15 weeks. I had a hunch this was the reason. Words fail me right now. I am sick to my stomach,” another wrote.
A woman named Martha also shared the story of a friend who suffered a miscarriage after vaccination. She acknowledged, however, that the connection could not be established with certainty.
“She would be devastated if she knew positively it was related as she got the vaccine on a whim when it was mass promoted and before people started figuring out there were issues,” she wrote.
Men also entered the discussion, describing pregnancy losses involving their wives.
“My wife had a miscarriage after taking the required shots to keep her job/any job in healthcare,” Dan Karpuc wrote.
Karpuc also criticized the continued association between Fauci and his former academic institution, saying the controversy had made the connection particularly troubling for him.
“Both my wife & I graduated from Fauci’s alma mater Holy Cross, which recently renamed the building we took classes in the ‘Anthony S Fauci Integrated Sciences Complex.’ Disgusted.”
The stories are emotionally powerful, but they remain individual accounts and do not by themselves establish that vaccination caused any particular miscarriage. Miscarriage has numerous possible causes, and determining whether a medical intervention caused a specific pregnancy loss requires scientific evidence rather than timing alone.
That distinction, however, has done little to quiet the political firestorm.
The newly released messages are likely to provide additional ammunition to Republicans who have spent years challenging the federal government’s handling of the pandemic. Johnson and Paul have been among the most persistent congressional critics seeking greater transparency from federal health agencies and officials who helped shape COVID-19 policy.
At the heart of the renewed controversy is not simply whether Fauci privately mentioned a theoretical possibility. It is whether federal officials adequately communicated uncertainties and emerging concerns to the American public while vaccine recommendations were being developed and promoted.
For critics, the messages raise an uncomfortable question: Were Americans hearing every concern officials were discussing behind closed doors?
For Fauci’s defenders, the texts can be read differently. Acknowledging a theoretical possibility in a private scientific discussion is not the same thing as determining that a vaccine causes miscarriages. The released messages themselves do not demonstrate such a conclusion.
Still, the political consequences may be significant.
McCain’s demand that Fauci be jailed reflects the anger of many Americans who believe pandemic officials were too dismissive of legitimate questions and too slow to acknowledge uncertainty. Others argue that the texts are being presented without enough scientific context and that anecdotal accounts should not be confused with proof.
What remains undeniable is that the release has reopened one of the most contentious chapters of the COVID-19 era.
Years after the pandemic reshaped American life, questions about transparency, vaccine mandates, government messaging and reproductive health continue to generate fierce debate. And as additional communications emerge, lawmakers and the public are once again asking what officials knew, when they knew it—and how much of that information Americans were actually told.
