‘Dead Duck’: Fauci Tells Harrowing Story of His Poisoning Scare During Trump Pandemic Response

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Dr. Anthony Fauci tells the story of the time he thought he might be a “dead duck” when his position as the face of the Trump administration’s pandemic response got him sent a booby-trapped letter.

The infectious disease expert and chief of the Covid response across two administrations related the tale in the forthcoming book “Nightmare Scenario” by The Washington Post‘s Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, and Politico Playbook got an early peek:

THAT TIME FAUCI THOUGHT HE MIGHT BE A DEAD MAN — ANTHONY FAUCI was opening his mail at his desk Aug. 27 when white powder literally blew up in his face. According to a new book out Tuesday, previewed by Playbook, Fauci had three thoughts: It was a prank to scare him, anthrax that would make him seriously ill but which he could probably survive, or ricin — in which case he was a “dead duck.” Over the next few hours, his team hosed him down to his skivvies in a chemical lab, making him stand naked in what looked like a kiddy pool as they awaited the results of tests on the substance. He called his wife to warn her before breathing a sigh of relief a few hours later when the findings came back negative for both deadly substances.

The book also makes the case that then-President Donald Trump was responsible for the climate that led to this and other incidents. According to Politico, the authors ask “how Fauci, the top doctor steering the nation through the deadliest pandemic in modern history, became a target for death threats and pranks like this. We’ll give you one guess — and yes, he’s the former president of the United States.”

That tracks with Fauci’s public statements about receiving death threats throughout his time as Trump’s Covid honcho.