WASHINGTON (AP) – Dr. Anthony Fauci, facing the US government’s pandemic response, donated his personal 3D model of the COVID-19 virus to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
The museum honored Fauci with the American Grand Medal on Tuesday.
“Dr. Fauci has helped save millions of lives and advanced our treatment and understanding of infectious and immunological diseases over more than five decades of public service, ”said Museum director Anthea M. Hartig. “His humanitarianism and devotion truly exemplify what it means to be a great American.”
The museum asked Fauci to contribute a personal artifact to mark the pandemic, and he chose the blue and orange ball with lumps that he used to explain the complexity of the virus in dozens of interviews.
The model was made with a 3D printer and shows what the Smithsonian ad calls “the various components of the SARS-CoV-2 virion (the complete, infectious form of the virus), including the spike protein.”
Fauci presented his new medal in a video call on the big night, calling it “an extraordinary and humiliating honor.”
“It’s been a terrible year in so many ways,” he said. “A few decades ago, people will talk about the experience we went through.”
Fauci, 80, is the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. After serving as the besieged and frequently removed face of the Trump administration’s COVID response, Fauci was retained as President Joe Biden’s senior adviser.
The Great American Medal was founded in 2016. Some of the awards include former secretaries of state Madeleine K. Albright and General Colin L. Powell, tennis star Billie Jean King and musician Paul Simon.
Fauci received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award, in 2008 from then-President George W. Bush for decades of work, dating back to the early days of the AIDS crisis.