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>Fauci was model for hero in romance novel by Sally Quinn
https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/496279-fauci-was-model-for-hero-in-romance-novel-by-sally-quinn
Anthony Fauci, the country's leading expert on infectious diseases and a key member of the White House's coronavirus task force, was the basis for a leading love interest in a romance novel written by Sally Quinn in 1991, the novelist reveals.
"I just fell in love with him," Quinn told Washingtonian in an interview published Tuesday, recalling being randomly paired with Fauci for a dinner event in Washington, D.C., back then.
"Usually those dinners, you make polite conversation, and that’s it," she said. "But we had this intense conversation, personal conversation. I thought, 'Wow, this guy is amazing.'"
At the time, Quinn was trying to create a romantic interest for one of the main characters of the sequel to her novel "Regrets Only."
"He just exuded charisma. All the things that she would have fallen in love with," Quinn said of Fauci.
Fauci, who had the same main job then that he does now — director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) — then became the basis for Michael Lanzer, a fictional National Institutes of Health scientist who has a simmering affair with Sadie Grey, the fictitious former first lady who stars in Quinn's "Happy Endings."
In 1991, when the book was published, the U.S. had just come off setting a record for the most AIDS-related deaths in a year. Fauci was most well known for his position at NIAID in the fight against AIDS.
Since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Fauci has been in the spotlight as one of the country's main experts on diseases while serving on the White House's coronavirus task force.