MAGA activists and even some U.S. senators are now pushing a bogus figure claiming that COVID vaccines caused an 82 percent miscarriage rate — and that former public health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci somehow covered this up.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board tore down this conspiracy theory on Thursday, in part by citing the Trump administration’s own words.
Part of the context, the board wrote, is that “Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and Kentucky’s Rand Paul this week published text messages obtained from Dr. Fauci’s government phone, and specifically an exchange from January 2021 in which Biden officials discussed whether Covid vaccines should be recommended for pregnant women. Trials for the vaccines, as for most medicines and immunizations, excluded pregnant women.”
At the time, Fauci believed more data was needed — which anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists have taken to mean the shots were made available broadly to pregnant women with no data at all.
But in the same thread, the board noted, Fauci also said, “A large number (more than 10,000) pregnant women have been vaccinated. No issues have arisen,” and so he decided it was worth it given COVID itself was already known to pose risks to pregnancy.
Moreover, said the board, “President Trump’s CDC still agrees. Covid vaccination ‘has not been linked to increased health risks for pregnant women or babies,’ it says. Yet pregnant women who get sick with Covid are likelier to experience severe illness, including ‘increased risk of complications that can affect your health and the health of your baby.’”
As for the 82 percent miscarriage rate figure, it comes from a misreading of incomplete data; the full data set actually showed a miscarriage rate of less than 13 percent for vaccinated women, which is the same as the general population’s miscarriage rate.
Ultimately, wrote the board, “Vaccine skeptics claim Dr. Fauci misled pregnant women. But there’s no contradiction between his texts in early 2021 and his later public statements citing no evidence of increased risks. Dr. Fauci’s critics are confusing the issue, and probably also pregnant women.”
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