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Dolly Parton fans are jokingly crediting her with curing the coronavirus after she donated $1 million to research that ultimately led to Moderna’s recently announced vaccine.
In April, Parton shared that she donated money to research being done at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
“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 that research of the coronavirus for a cure,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “I am making a donation of $1 million to Vanderbilt toward that research and to encourage people that can afford it to make donations.”
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the donation made by Parton and the work done by researchers at Vanderbilt during trial phases directly led to Moderna announcing it had produced a coronavirus vaccine that is nearly 95% effective.
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It didn’t take long for fans of the “9 to 5” singer to take to Twitter to give her credit for her role in helping stop the deadly virus. Some even jokingly gave her 100% of the credit.
Fans are thanking Dolly Parton for donating $1 million to coronavirus research that led to a potentially viable vaccine. (Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
"Dolly Parton gave a million dollars to help fund Vanderbilt COVID vaccine research. Vanderbilt was involved with helping Moderna develop their new 94.5% effective vaccine. So...Dolly Parton saves the world and I’m not a bit surprised," one user wrote.
"I want everyone to know that Dolly Parton gave us Buffy the tv series, the song 9 to 5, Dollywood, and of course the Covid vaccine," another user wrote.
"Why are we not discussing the fact that the vaccine with the good news this morning was partly funded by Dolly Parton?" someone else wrote. "Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vacciiiiiiiiiiiiiine."
"Dolly Parton just casually saving the world from covid by funding the new vaccine with 95% success rate," someone else added.
News that Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine candidate proved 94.5% effective in preventing the novel coronavirus in Phase 3 clinical trial was applauded by medical experts Monday, with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, for instance, calling the data “striking.”
The results come after the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced last week that its coronavirus vaccine candidate showed over 90% efficacy, also in Phase 3.
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Both vaccines require approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before they can be distributed for widespread use. If the FDA allows emergency use of Moderna’s or Pfizer’s candidate, there will be limited, rationed supplies before the end of the year.
Dolly Parton donated $1 million to coronavirus vaccine research. (Wade Payne/Invision/AP, File)
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As of Tuesday morning, the novel coronavirus has infected more than 55,108,151 people across 191 countries and territories, resulting in at least 1,328,685 deaths. In the U.S., all 50 states plus the District of Columbia have reported confirmed cases of COVID-19, tallying more than 11,205,485 illnesses and at least 247,220 deaths.
Fox News' Madeline Farber contributed to this report.
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