Dr. Anthony Fauci feared he could be a “dead duck” after he opened a letter in the mail and an unknown white powder puffed up onto his face and chest, according to a new book.
The infectious disease expert’s team reportedly “hosed him down to his skivvies in a chemical lab” following the terrifying scare on Aug. 27 last year.
They made him “stand naked in what looked like a kiddy pool as they awaited the result of tests on the substance,” according to The Washington Post’s Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta’s new book, “Nightmare Scenario,” which Politico previewed Thursday.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases thought the substance could be anthrax, ricin — or a horrible prank.
Fauci breathed “a sigh of relief a few hours later when the findings came back negative for both deadly substances,” reported Politico.
Abutaleb and Paletta laid the blame for the scare on then-President Donald Trump, whose attacks on Fauci’s recommendations during the coronavirus pandemic contributed to the scientist and his family receiving death threats.
A HuffPost Guide To Coronavirus
- Do your vaccine side effects predict how you’d react to COVID-19?
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- Find all that and more on our coronavirus hub page.
