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Anthony Fauci was uncomfortable with 'cult following' but got a kick from it: 'Society is really totally nuts'

A colleague labeled the public hype around Anthony Fauci 'dizzying' to which he replied, 'it is not at all pleasant, that is for sure'

Emails sent to and forwarded by Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, proved that despite being uncomfortable with the kind of attention that he is receiving from swooning fans he did get a kick out of it by discussing it with other colleagues. Many of Fauci's followers turned him into an uncanny sex symbol overnight.

A couple of months into the pandemic, some of the anti-Trumpers who did not like the way the former president was handling the health crisis began seeing Fauci as a beacon of light, which in turn catapulted the infectious disease expert to heights of fame, which he had not seen before. Demands for Fauci-themed T-shirts, bobbleheads, socks and even prayer candles with his face plastered on them increased.

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'Our society is really totally nuts': Fauci

Responses to initial emails received by Fauci showed he was clearly uncomfortable with the attention. After he received a Google alert about news stories mentioning his name, Fauci wrote in an April 8, 2020, email he forwarded to undisclosed recipients: “Click on the ‘Cuomo Crush’ and ‘Fauci Fever’ link below. It will blow your mind. Our society is really totally nuts."

In March 2020, a colleague at the National Institutes of Health forwarded Fauci a Washington Post article with the headline 'Fauci Socks, Fauci Doughnuts, Fauci Fan Art: The Coronavirus Experts Attract a Cult Following'. The article in question reported the story of a shop in Rochester, New York, that had sold out donuts with Fauci's face on them. “Truly surrealistic,” Fauci wrote. “Hopefully this all stops soon.” In April of the same year, a colleague labeled the public hype around him “dizzying”, to which he replied, “It is not at all pleasant, that is for sure.”

Fauci loved Brad Pitt's impersonation of him on 'SNL'

However, the craze was far from over, and eventually, Fauci did get a kick out of it, especially when actor Brad Pitt played him on 'Saturday Night Live'. Some of his emails proved that he was keeping up with the hype surrounding Pitt's performance on the show. “One reviewer of the SNL show said that Pitt looked 'exactly like me.' That statement made my year,” Fauci wrote to a colleague.

Fauci was also apparently negotiating about a documentary regarding his work, as his emails revealed behind-the-scenes discussions. On April 12, a month after the World Health Organization had declared the coronavirus a pandemic, Fauci wrote a note to his team about the unnamed project. “Let us discuss this tomorrow before we do anything. No one has any ‘exclusives’ on anything about me,” he wrote to his team.

NFL and Disney filmmaker asked Fauci for advice

Due to his hero-like problem-solver persona, a number of big-shot organizations reached out to Fauci for advice regarding the best way to return back to work after the lockdown. For example, Fauci received a request for a confidential briefing on how to safely start the next NFL season from the medical director of the league. There was also a request from a Disney-linked filmmaker to document Fauci's pandemic schedule, to be revisited in a biopic set to be released later this year. To this, Fauci responded: “All this sounds fine and workable."