#Dolly Parton Partly Funded Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Research — Yes, Really!

According to reports, the country music legend partially funded Moderna‘s research into a potential vaccine for COVID-19. And the results have been VERY promising: so far, the vaccine shows an estimated 94.5% protection from the virus, according to The New York Times.

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Back in April, Parton gave $1 million to help research and map out COVID-19 in the hopes of bringing a vaccine to market ASAP. The connection came through a doctor named Dr. Naji Abumrad, who works at the Vanderbilt University Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation in Nashville. As luck would have it, Parton became friends with Dr. Abumrad after the singer was involved in a car accident in 2014 and was treated at Vanderbilt. And look where they are now!

Per The Guardian, the 74-year-old country crooner’s donation has also gone a long way to support convalescent plasma studies at Vanderbilt, too, which could develop into another new way to treat the virus in sick people by using plasma antibodies from those previously ill. Science!!!

Technical stuff aside, Moderna is hopeful they can produce one BILLION doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021. They’re not the only ones, either; you may recall Pfizer and their partner BioNTech came out with news last week that they had developed a vaccine showing 90% effectiveness, as well.

Regardless of which vaccine “wins” the race to protect the public from the novel virus, two things are for certain: science is amazing, and Dolly Parton f**king RULES!

[Image via Judy Eddy/WENN]