Dolly Parton ‘honoured’ to have helped fund Moderna coronavirus vaccine trials: ‘I’m a very proud girl today’

‘I just wanted it to do good and evidently, it is,’ singer said

Dolly Parton says that she is “very proud” to have donated $1m (£756,000) to scientists working on the Moderna coronavirus vaccine trials.

Earlier this week, the country music legend was credited with having “cured coronavirus” after it emerged that Moderna’s vaccine – reported to be 94.5 per cent effective against coronavirus – had been partially funded by the Dolly Parton Covid-19 Research Fund.

Appearing on the Today show on Tuesday (17 November), the 74-year-old revealed that she’d just found out the news minutes before going on air, telling the presenters: “Praise the Lord.”

“I’m just happy that anything I do can help somebody else and when I donated the money to the Covid fund,” she said. “I just wanted it to do good and evidently, it is. Let’s just hope we find a cure real soon.”

Later in the day, Parton also appeared on the BBC’s The One Show, where she said that she felt “very honoured and very proud” to be able to contribute to the research.

“I just felt so proud to have been part of that little seed money that will hopefully grow into something great and help to heal this world,” she said. “I'm a very proud girl today to know I had anything at all to do with something that’s going to help us through this crazy pandemic.”

Parton first donated $1m to Vanderbilt University’s research in April, writing at the time: “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 towards research of the coronavirus for a cure.

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

Abumrad this week told The Washington Post that Parton’s donation had “made it possible to expedite the science behind the testing”.

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“Without a doubt in my mind, her funding made the research toward the vaccine go 10 times faster than it would be without it,” Abumrad said.