(THE BLAZE) – Legendary country music star Dolly Parton was a major early funder of a potentially effective coronavirus vaccine, Rolling Stone reported Tuesday.
In April, Parton announced on social media that she donated $1 million to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, for coronavirus research. Now, several months later, it has been revealed that her donation went toward funding Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, the second vaccine in recent days to report a surprisingly high success rate against the virus in human trials.
“My longtime friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements toward research of the coronavirus for a cure,” Parton wrote on Instagram at the time regarding her decision to donate. “I am making a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt towards that research and to encourage people that can afford it to make donations. Keep the faith.”
