MILWAUKEE (WBBM NEWSRADIO/AP) -- Dr. Anthony Fauci — the federal government’s top infectious disease expert — will get his own bobblehead.
The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum announced Thursday that a new figure will be modeled on Fauci, who has become a celebrity and authority during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci has become America’s voice of reason as one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. This is the first bobblehead of Dr. Fauci, who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984,” the museum said on its website.
The bobblehead features Dr. Anthony Fauci wearing a suit as he makes a motion showing how the nation needs to “flatten the curve” in the coronavirus pandemic.
The museum in Milwaukee picked Fauci because many people see the plain-speaking expert on the coronavirus as a hero right now, said co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar.
“He isn't trying to spin things," he said. "He isn't trying to make people happy and tell him what they want to hear. He's actually telling them, you know, how he sees it as an expert. And I think that's really what we need him this time.”
Fauci said on “Fox & Friends” Friday: "That’s nice if people want to do it, but I have other things to worry about.”
Fauci's face also appears on socks. And a Rochester, New York, shop is selling doughnuts with his face, surrounded by white frosting and topped off with red, white and blue sprinkles.
The Milwaukee-based museum will donate $5 from the sale of each $25 statue to the American Hospital Association. The donated money will go toward protective equipment for health care workers.
“Hopefully it does help a lot of people through the donation and also brings a smile to people's faces as we all could also use something to smile about right now,” Sklar said.
Told Friday that the bobblehead would help support the American Hospital Association's effort, Fauci said that was “great.”
The figure will ship in July.