Dolly Parton's $1M Donation Towards COVID19 Vaccine Fund Helped Speed up Its Creation | "Felt Like This Was the Time...to Help"

Some people just make the world a better place with their actions. They like to give back to their community and their actions benefit everyone. One of those incredible people is country singer Dolly Parton. We know her as a songstress and now her humanitarian work is going to benefit the world, literally. Her actions will have real-world impact, spreading hope across the planet.

Just a week after pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that there were promising results in its phase three vaccine trials for COVID19, biotech company Moderna made an even better announcement. They revealed that their early results have shown 94.5% effectiveness at preventing infection. But, what has this got to do with the Jolene singer, you ask?

Parton was one of the early patrons of the research lab that was developing the vaccine. She had donated $1 million to battle this infectious disease and her goodwill is going to help the rest of the world. "That's what I understand this morning," Parton told Today, after finding out that her donation played a key role in Moderna's success.

"I'm just happy that anything I do can help somebody else, and when I donated the money to the Covid fund, I just wanted it to do good. Evidently, it is. Let's just hope we find a cure real soon... What better time right now, we need this. I felt like this was the time for me to open my heart and my hand, and try to help."

A Vanderbilt spokesperson told BBC that her "generous" gift was helping "several promising research initiatives". Her donation is also being used to support a convalescent plasma study and research involving antibody therapies, Vanderbilt University Medical Center spokesperson John Howser said. This treatment is necessary to treat those who are suffering from the infectious disease, which has not become a global pandemic.

"Her gift provided support for a pilot convalescent plasma study that one of our researchers was able to successfully complete," Howser told BBC. "Funds from Dolly's gift are also supporting very promising research into monoclonal antibodies that act as a temporary vaccine for Covid. Two of these antibodies are now being tested by a global pharmaceutical firm."

After she made the donation, Jeff Balser, Vanderbilt's president and CEO, said her "amazing generosity is a source of inspiration." He added, "She cares so much about helping others and we are very grateful for her ongoing support. These funds will help us complete promising research that can benefit millions in their battle with the virus."

The official preliminary report on the Moderna vaccine has been named "the Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund" and a number of other organizations for supporting them. However, her fans went a step ahead and credited the 9 to 5 singer for "curing" the disease.

"Dolly Parton established a one million dollar research fund thru Vanderbilt Medical Center, a key player in the Moderna trials:https://nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2022483… In my book, the latest announcement of Moderna's 94.5% effective vaccine, essentially means @DollyParton cured coronavirus," said author Amee Vanderpool.

Another person said, "Why are we not discussing the fact that the vaccine with the good news this morning was partly funded by Dolly Parton? Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vacciiiiiiiiiiiiiine"

References: 

https://www.today.com/health/dolly-parton-helping-fund-coronavirus-vaccine-i-just-wanted-do-t199385

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54974987