Anti-vaccine advocates in August 2026 revived claims that Dr. Anthony Fauci covered up an 82% COVID-19 vaccine miscarriage rate, after Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Johnson released a Fauci text suggesting the vaccine could theoretically be associated with first-trimester miscarriage. The 82% figure actually derives from a misreading of a 2021 CDC study that only counted 'completed pregnancies' by the study's cutoff date, a group skewed toward miscarriages because healthy pregnancies from early vaccination hadn't yet had time to finish. The real, broader rate from that study was 12.6%, in line with normal population miscarriage rates, and later, more complete studies found rates of 9% to 10.9%.
Fauci's text was dated January 2021, before the study's data collection even concluded, meaning he could not have been referencing its findings, and later texts show he came to believe the data indicated no issues with vaccinating pregnant people.
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