An unlikely friendship helped spur Dolly Parton to donate $1 million that partially funded Moderna’s experimental vaccine, which a preliminary analysis released this week found is almost 95% effective at preventing the coronavirus, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
The friendship dates back seven years when Parton, following a minor traffic accident, sought medical advice at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she met Lebanese-born Naji Abumrad, a physician and professor of surgery.
Abumrad knew almost nothing about the megastar, but they struck up a friendship based on their mutual interests in current events and science.
They also discovered that, despite growing up half a world apart, they were once both poor, mountain kids trying to get by living in very similar homes.
Abumrad told the Post that Parton asked him many questions about the coronavirus at the beginning of the year, and this curiosity about Vanderbilt’s research into the subject led to a gift in April that helped fund the vaccine, which she made in honor of Abumrad.
The doctor said Parton's donation “made it possible to expedite the science behind the testing,” adding that “Without a doubt in my mind, her funding made the research toward the vaccine go 10 times faster than it would be without it.”
Parton told NBC’s “Today" show that “I’m just happy that anything I do can help somebody else, and when I donated the money to the covid fund, I just wanted it to do good. Evidently, it is. Let’s just hope we find a cure real soon.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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