has helped fund the production of a promising new coronavirus vaccine by Moderna Therapeutics.
Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Moderna released data early Monday on its candidate vaccine, mRNA-1273, finding that it reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection by 94.5%.
According to a preliminary report on the vaccine by The New England Journal of Medicine, The Jolene and 9 To 5 singer was credited among others for her donation to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Announcing her donation on Instagram in April, the star said: “I am making a donation of $1 million to Vanderbilt towards that research and to encourage people that can afford it to make donations.”
“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 that research of the coronavirus for a cure”.
Parton has long been a patron of philanthropy. She founded the Imagination Library in the 1990s to boost literacy among children and opened her Dollywood empire in 1986 to employ thousands of East Tennesseans.
The Vanderbilt Vaccine Center is researching synthetic antibodies that could treat and even prevent the virus. The Moderna vaccine was made possible by the researchers at Vanderbilt, Emory University, National Institutes of Health and others.
In Tennessee, the COVID-19 situation is bleak. The state recorded its highest levels of infection, death and test positivity ever in the past week. As of Friday, the state was averaging 3,900 infections and 44 deaths daily.