Dolly Parton Made a $1 Million Donation That Helped with Research on Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine

Dolly Parton isn’t only a legendary country singer but she’s also one of the celebrities who’ve helped to fund the research for a novel coronavirus disease vaccine. She actually mentioned her sizable donation a couple of months ago.

Dolly Parton, 74, has been listed on The New England Journal of Medicine's novel coronavirus disease vaccine report as a funder. She was noted for her $1 million donation to the COVID-19 Research Fund at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Her donation helped fund Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccine is the second one and its results came out this week, so far it has a very impressive and high success rate.

Parton’s name appears in the preliminary report among sponsors like the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Emory University. In April 2020, the country musician revealed on Instagram that she was making the donation, writing.

“I'm making a donation of $1 million to Vanderbilt towards that research and to encourage people that can afford it to make donations.”

She explained, at the time, that she was making it to assist her friend Dr. Naji Abumrad. The doctor is a professor of surgery at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and he and his team were only making headway when the singer donated.

According to the data released this week, the Moderna vaccine was said to be 94.5% effective against the coronavirus disease. It’s expected that by late December 2020, vaccinations could begin.

It’s estimated that enough doses could be ready by the end of 2020 to vaccinate ten million people. By the end of next year, it’s estimated that around 250 million people would be vaccinated.

Before the vaccine can be used the FDA still needs to approve it. The researchers will apply for emergency-use authorization when they have enough study group cases that test positive after taking the vaccine.

The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci also shared who the vaccine will be made available for in its initial stages. He revealed that elderly people, care workers, and people with underlying medical conditions would be treated first.

Dolly Parton, who has been married for 54 years to her husband Carl Dean, 78, is quite philanthropic.

A week earlier, Pfizer beat Moderna to the punch when the company announced they’d found a vaccine. The company hopes that the vaccine will be ready for use at the end of the year for high-risk patients.

Parton, who has been married for 54 years to her husband Carl Dean, 78, is quite philanthropic as she’s known for her childhood literacy program, Imagination Library. She’s kept herself busy through the pandemic with different projects.

On October 2, 2020, she released the holiday album “A Holly Dolly Christmas.” This month on the 22nd she will feature in the film “Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square,” which will be available on Netflix.