Newly released entries from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary reveal that he frequently checked on conservative media personality Katie Miller after she contracted COVID-19 while pregnant in 2020. The records suggest Fauci advised Miller and helped calm her anxiety during the early months of the pandemic. However, Miller has since denied that the two were friends and has become an outspoken critic of the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The diary was released by Republican Senator Rand Paul, who has repeatedly criticized Fauci’s handling of the pandemic.
5Miller, who was serving as a spokesperson for then-Vice President Mike Pence, tested positive for COVID-19 in May 2020. At the time, her pregnancy had not yet been publicly announced. According to PEOPLE, in a May 9 diary entry, Fauci wrote, “I am calling Katie frequently to check on her” a couple of times per day.
According to Fauci, Miller was concerned about how the illness could affect her pregnancy. He noted that “she is very anxious about getting very ill since she is 10 weeks pregnant.”
Fauci also described helping Miller through a particularly difficult moment that evening. “Tonight she had an anxiety reaction. I calmed her over the phone,” he wrote.
The previous day, Fauci recorded that he “spent much time on phone this evening advising” Miller and her husband, Stephen Miller, who currently serves as White House deputy chief of staff.
Diary Portrays Miller As An Ally During The Pandemic
5Other entries from 2020 indicate that Fauci and Miller regularly communicated as part of the White House coronavirus response. Miller worked on the pandemic task force led by Pence, while Fauci became one of the federal government’s most prominent public health officials during the crisis.
In one entry, Fauci described Miller defending him to members of Pence’s staff. In another dated March 25, he wrote, “Katie Miller is great (tough, smart, but great)” and described her relationship with Stephen as an “Interesting couple with Steve Miller.”
The diary reportedly contains several references to Miller consulting Fauci about her pregnancy and the COVID-19 precautions she could take in her personal life. Despite the warmth reflected in Fauci’s entries, Miller insists their relationship was strictly professional.
Katie Miller Denies Fauci Was Her Friend
5Responding to the diary’s release, Miller rejected the suggestion that she and Fauci shared a personal friendship. “He was not my doctor. He was not my friend. He was a work colleague who called me for work purposes, and in the course of a phone call, you would discuss other things,” she told NOTUS.
Miller, who gave birth to her fourth child in June, said she maintained a friendly working relationship with Fauci for strategic reasons. “I understood who he was, and I understood how to manage somebody like him,” she added.
According to Miller, she was cordial with Fauci so that he “did not leak against me or my husband.” Miller also said Paul’s office published the diary passages involving her pregnancy and personal conversations without first receiving her knowledge or permission.
Miller Has Since Become A Vocal Fauci Critic
5In the years following the pandemic, Miller has repeatedly spoken out against Fauci and called for him to face criminal consequences over his actions.
On Monday, July 27, she accused him on X of causing “decades of harm to children.” After Fauci testified before Republican senators on Wednesday, July 29, Miller wrote on X. “You can just tell he’s in so much pain.”
Her current position stands in sharp contrast to the relationship described in Fauci’s 2020 diary, where he portrayed Miller as an ally and documented his efforts to support her while she was ill and pregnant.
Dr. Fauci Invokes The Fifth Amendment
5Fauci appeared before Republican senators on Wednesday and invoked the Fifth Amendment while answering hours of questions. He argued that Paul had summoned him “to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words, quote, ‘behind bars.’ ”
During a brief opening statement, Fauci called the release of his “unredacted personal diary” and Paul’s “repeated slanderous comments about me” evidence of what he characterized as an “unhinged obsession.”
Fauci led NIAID under seven presidents before retiring in 2022.
