By: Niña V. Guno, INQUIRER.net /November 19, 2020
Dolly Parton was just as surprised as the rest of the public when she learned that she helped fund a COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna.
The country music icon shared her joy at the results of the vaccine trial on Today last Tuesday, Nov. 17.
“I’m just happy that anything I do can help somebody else,” she said. “When I donated money to the COVID fund, I just wanted it to do good and evidently, it is. Let’s just hope we find a cure real soon.”
Back in April, Parton announced on social media that she donated $1 million to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center for research to find a coronavirus cure. Unknown to her, part of it went to an early-stage trial of the Moderna vaccine, BBC reported yesterday, Nov. 18.
Months later, social media users were quick to notice that Parton was among those who funded the vaccine when Moderna published its findings on Nov. 12 at the New England Journal of Medicine.
Moderna announced this week that its experimental vaccine has been 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19, based on interim data from a late-stage trial.#