‘Maybe the guy’s a masochist’: how Anthony Fauci became a superstar

The Guardian says the US diseases expert has been spoofed by Brad Pitt and lauded as the ‘sexiest man alive’. Now the pop culture phenomenon is the focus of a documentary.

Beer and bobbleheads. Candles, colouring books, cupcakes and cushions. Dolls, doughnuts, hoodies, mugs and socks. T-shirts and yard signs that declare “Dr Fauci is my hero” and “In Fauci we trust”.

Anthony Fauci, an 80-year-old scientist, doctor and public servant, has become an unlikely cult hero for millions of people during the Covid pandemic.

The phenomenon says much about his devotion to saving lives, as well as his willingness to listen and his role as a candid truth-teller. But it also reveals much about the US, a polarised country where face masks and vaccines have become as controversial as abortion and gun rights – and where science itself is under siege.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/10/how-anthony-fauci-became-a-superstar