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Epidemiologist Anthony Fauci Is America's New Star

Epidemiologist Anthony Fauci Is America's New Star
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Epidemiologist Anthony Fauci Is America's New Star

Epidemiologist Anthony Fauci Is America's New Star

From shirts featuring his picture to beverages and donuts holding his name, no one ever expected epidemiologist Anthony Fauci, 79, a senior expert in the White House's coronavirus taskforce, to become a star in the eyes of Americans.

Accompanied by his fiancée, his dog in the back seat, Tony Mastrangelo drove three hours to get the pastry that everyone is snatching up right now: the "Doc donut", a donut with a photo of Anthony Fauci printed on a food sheet, created by the Donuts Delite store in Rochester, New York. With this work, Nick Semeraro, owner of the Donuts Delite, hopes to "pay tribute" to the director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases who he sees "a powerful and calm voice in the midst of chaos" during televised press conferences at which expert participates daily alongside the president.

"I have never seen anyone admired by so many people," Semeraro, who had to open new phone lines to handle the rain of orders, told AFP. With small glasses and round cheeks, the face of the epidemiologist is now displayed on all types of objects, from "In Fauci We Trust" T-shirts to "Keep calm and wash your hands" mugs, socks and candles.

Etsy, a US e-shopping platform selling handicrafts has more than 3,000 objects dedicated to the expert. On social media, a Facebook account, "Dr. Anthony Fauci Fan Club" has more than 79,000 members, in addition to a similar Twitter account with 21,000 followers.

In a video game called "Fauci's Revenge", the doctor has lasers shooting out of his eyes to help defeat the virus. He also has a cocktail named after him, "Fauci Pouchy", made of lemonade, vodka, elderflower, and grapefruit. "It's crazy! We sold up to 300 last Saturday," said Rohit Malhotra, inventor of the cocktail and manager of Capo, a bar in Washington.

Probably no one expected this serious, reserved-looking New Yorker, respected worldwide for his expertise on many viruses, from AIDS to Ebola, would become a pop culture star. With his television appearances at the White House, he was "propelled to the heart of all Americans," said Robert Thompson, head of the Television and Popular Culture Department at Syracuse University. Fauci is all over social media, giving live interviews in his raspy voice on Snapchat, answering questions from basketball star Stephen Curry on Instagram and talking to late-night funnyman Trevor Noah on YouTube.

His direct, factual side and his ability to reframe the words of Donald Trump with scientific arguments also explain the enthusiasm he triggers. "In a time of crisis like this, Americans desperately want heroes. Fauci has always insisted on telling the truth, even with an angry president standing behind him," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public relations at Princeton University.

"He has a small stature, he is extremely normal. And he seems to speak with reason and science," added Robert Thompson. Tony Mastrangelo, who does not rule out buying other products bearing the doctor's picture, appreciates that the expert "does not embellish things" unlike Donald Trump. But Fauci has also earned himself enemies among US conservatives for correcting Trump. He has been the target of insults on social media, which led the government to boost the security around him.

Trump himself retweeted a tweet with a #FireFauci hashtag, but said later he has confidence in him and called him a "fantastic guy." Amid all the love and hate, Fauci remains stoic.

When asked by American journalist Peter Hamby about the petition to be elected "Sexiest man of 2020" by People magazine, which collected more than 18,000 signatures, Dr. Fauci replied: "Where were you when I was 30 years old?"

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Varieties

Jane Austen Fans Celebrate the Author’s 250th Birthday in Britain and Beyond

One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)
One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)
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Jane Austen Fans Celebrate the Author’s 250th Birthday in Britain and Beyond

One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)
One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)

Fans of Jane Austen celebrated the acclaimed author's 250th birthday on Tuesday with a church service in her home village, festive visits to her house — and a virtual party for those paying tribute from afar.

Thousands of enthusiasts around the world have already taken part in a yearlong celebration of one of English literature’s greats, who penned “Pride and Prejudice," “Sense and Sensibility” and other beloved novels.

On Tuesday — to mark 250 years since she was born on Dec. 16, 1775 — Jane Austen’s House, in the southern English village of Chawton, hosted talks, tours and performances for dozens of visitors, with celebrations concluding with an online party for fans from all over the world.

“Regency dress strongly encouraged,” organizers said, adding that more than 500 people had signed up for the Zoom party.

The cottage, now a museum with Austen artifacts, was where the author lived for the last years of her life and where she wrote all six of her novels.

A church service featuring music and readings is held in Steventon, the rural village where she was born.

Fans, who call themselves “Janeites," have marked the anniversary year with Regency balls and festivals staged in the UK, US and beyond.

At the weekend, the city of Bath, where Austen lived for five years, hosted the Yuletide Jane Austen Birthday Ball, the finale of many grand costumed events held there this year.

Varieties

Thousands of Dinosaur Footprints Found on Alpine Cliffs Near Winter Olympics Site

The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)
The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)
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Thousands of Dinosaur Footprints Found on Alpine Cliffs Near Winter Olympics Site

The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)
The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)

Italian paleontologists have uncovered thousands of dinosaur footprints on a near-vertical rock face more than 2,000 meters above sea level in the Stelvio National Park, a discovery they say is among the world's richest sites for the Triassic period.

The tracks, some up to 40 cm wide and showing claw marks, stretch for about five kilometers in the high-altitude glacial Valle di Fraele near Bormio, one of the venues for the 2026 Winter Olympics in the northern region of Lombardy.

"This is one of the largest and oldest footprint sites in Italy, and among the most spectacular I've seen in 35 years," said Cristiano Dal Sasso, paleontologist at Milan's Natural History Museum in a press conference on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Lombardy Region.

Experts believe the prints were left by herds of long-necked herbivores, likely plateosaurs, more than 200 million years ago when the area was a warm lagoon, ideal for dinosaurs to roam along beaches, leaving tracks in the mud near the water.

"The footprints were impressed when the sediments were still soft, on the wide tidal flats that surrounded the Tethys Ocean," said Fabio Massimo Petti, ichnologist at MUSE museum of Trento, attending the same conference.

"The muds, now turned to rock, have allowed the preservation of remarkable anatomical details of the feet, such as impressions of the toes and even the claws," Petti added.

As the African plate gradually moved north, closing and drying up the Tethys Ocean, sedimentary rocks that formed the seabed were folded, creating the Alps.

The fossilized dinosaur footprints shifted from a horizontal position to the vertical one on a mountain slope spotted by a wildlife photographer in September while chasing deer and bearded vultures, experts said.

"The natural sciences deliver to the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games an unexpected and precious gift from remote eras," Giovanni Malagò, President of the Milano Cortina 2026 Organizing Committee told journalists.

The area cannot be reached by trails, so drones and remote sensing technologies will have to be used to study it.

Varieties

Another Home in British Village Torn Down Due to Seaside Erosion

The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 
The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 
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Another Home in British Village Torn Down Due to Seaside Erosion

The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 
The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 

Demolition work has begun on a second clifftop home in a picturesque seaside spot, just weeks after another property was knocked down in the village.

Bulldozers have started tearing down The Chantry, in Thorpeness on the Suffolk coast because of its proximity to the crumbling cliff edge, according to ITV News.

The four-bedroom home on North End Avenue was put up for auction in September, selling for £200,000, according to the agents' website.

But East Suffolk Council said demolition had to begin after “critical safety levels” were reached.

At the end of October, neighbor Jean Flick, 88, saw her clifftop home in Thorpeness demolished after what the council described as “significant erosion.”

Evelyn Rumsby, who has lived in the village since 1977, described the latest demolition as “heartbreaking.”

“I don’t think unless you live here, you can’t experience anything like it... the noise of these lovely homes going,” she said, holding back tears.

“The erosion has been extreme over the last months, really extreme, and our only hope now is the shingle might come back if the winds change and we don’t have the intensity of these high winds that we’ve had over the last few months.”

“I do have fears,” she said. “We have to acknowledge that if it [erosion] moved in and this road went, there would be no access to our home site. It’s the access to the properties that is a big consideration.”

A spokesperson for East Suffolk Council said: “We have been working closely with affected property owners following significant recent erosion and sadly, critical safety levels have now been reached for another property on North End Avenue.”

He said demolition is in progress and we will continue to support the owners and their contractors to ensure the building can be taken down safely.

“This is a distressing situation, and we would request that people respect the owner’s privacy at this difficult time,” the spokesperson said.

“It is impossible to accurately predict when further losses may occur as erosion is not linear. Therefore, we are regularly monitoring the area and engaging with property owners on an ongoing basis.”