The ultimate fame for Dr. Fauci — a bobblehead in a museum
Dr. Anthony Fauci has become famous during the coronavirus pandemic, so it was only natural the good folks at the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee decided to pay him the ultimate honor.
His own bobblehead.
The Bobblehead Hall of Fame has gotten numerous requests for a Fauci bobblehead — both via social media and on the museum’s website — so it was happy to oblige, co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said.
“Anything Dr. Fauci-related right now, people are interested in,” Sklar said in a phone interview Wednesday evening.
The museum has 6,500 bobbleheads on display out of its collection of 10,000 and it frequently designs new bobbleheads. It was planning on creating a display of political bobbleheads for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee this summer but those plans are uncertain because of the coronavirus pandemic.
While the hall of fame has created bobbles of scientists before, this is the first of an immunologist.
“This will definitely be a unique item we haven’t done before,” Sklar said.
The bobbles sell for $25 with an expected shipment in July. Five dollars of every sale of the Fauci bobbleheads will be donated to the American Hospital Association in support of the 100 Million Mask Challenge providing critically needed Personal Protection Equipment to health care providers and first responders.
It takes about 90 days from design to delivery for bobbleheads, Sklar said, and the project will help keep the museum’s seven employees busy while the facility is closed to the public during the coronavirus outbreak.
In some respects, the 79-year-old director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has been the face of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States — a calm, no-nonsense presence, explaining to Americans and U.S. leaders the seriousness of COVID-19 and the steps needed to combat it.
Fauci’s popularity isn’t reflected only through the prism of a plastic doll with a nodding head. A bakery near Green Bay, Uncle Mike’s Bake Shoppe, has been making frosted cookies with Fauci’s visage since Friday. Bakeries elsewhere in the country are selling Fauci donuts and cupcakes. Also for sale: socks adorned with his face and T-shirts as well as prayer candles.
The Bobblehead Hall of Fame’s bobble designer (that’s an actual job) began working on a Fauci bobble a few days ago, Sklar said, but when other items began selling like hotcakes, the museum decided to move quicker than normal and announce it on Wednesday.
“We usually get a few requests each week, but we saw a much higher number of requests for Fauci. People saying, ‘Hey, he deserves one. He should get a bobble,’” Sklar said.
“He has been this consistent voice every day on TV. He’s the voice we’re looking for. He shoots straight and tells it like it is.”
Fauci bobbleheads are available for pre-order for $25 through the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum’s online store — bobbleheadhall.com.