Anthony Fauci Went Through Decontamination Process After Poison Scare, Book Claims
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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 “hosed him down to his skivvies in a chemical lab” following the terrifying scare on Aug. 27, 2020, according to Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta’s “Nightmare Scenario,” which comes out June 29 and dives into the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They made him “stand naked in what looked like a kiddy pool as they awaited the result of tests on the substance,” per the book, which Politico previewed Thursday.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases thought the substance could be anthrax or the poison 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,” Politico reported.
Abutaleb and Paletta laid the blame for the scare on then-President Donald Trump, whose attacks on Fauci’s recommendations during the public health crisis contributed to death threats the scientist and his family received.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
