Amid various agencies and universities listed as the funding sources behind Moderna's experimental vaccine was the name of the beloved country singer Dolly Parton.
Parton was involved in a car crash back in 2013 that left her in dire need of medical treatment. That's when the 74-year-old country legend met Dr Nazi Abumrad and struck up an unlikely friendship.
In April this year, Parton donated a million dollars to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in honour of her friendship with Abumrad, a surgical professor at the Nashville college, who told her that the hospital was making 'exciting advancements' toward finding a cure for the virus.
Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Moderna stated that its candidate vaccine, mRNA-1273, would bring down the risk of COVID-19 infection by 94.5%.
Moderna gave credit to Parton along with others for helping fund the research for a cure.
Parton was surprised to learn that her donation made such a huge impact on the vaccine production. She said, “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, and evidently it is."
The music icon's legions of fans expressed their gratitude and enthusiasm on social media platforms, reiterating their admiration for Parton and her well-documented charity work.
"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," a fan wrote.
"Dolly Parton just casually saving the world from covid by funding the new vaccine with 95% success rate," another user tweeted.
