How Dolly Parton has massively contributed to creating the COVID-19 vaccine

17 November 2020, 12:18 | Updated: 17 November 2020, 12:19

To prove just why she's the queen of everything, Dolly Parton has part-funded the COVID-19 research which resulted in the Moderna vaccine.

Dolly Parton is unversally loved by everyone, right?

The Queen of Country is not only an icon of music and entertainment, and has released both a Christmas album and a Netflix holiday film in 2020, but she is also one of the most charitable celebrities around.

Since the mid-1980s, she has run the literacy program, the Dollywood Foundation. The Imagination Library first launched in Rotherham in the UK, and mails one book per month to each enrolled child from the time of their birth until they enter school.It now sends books to 850,000 children each month across the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.

Meanwhile, in 2020 she donated $1 million (£760,000) towards COVID-19 research, which resulted in the Moderna vaccine.

Dolly is said to have become friends with Vanderbilt University surgeon Naji Abumrad, after she was involved in a car accident in 2013.

Read more: Inside Dolly Parton's 54-year marriage to husband Carl Dean

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the doctor showed the singer the research his university was doing on antibodies to combat the virus, and so she sent over a million dollars to the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, which was involved in the Moderna vaccine trial.

On Monday (November 16), the US biotechnology firm announced its coronavirus vaccine is now over 95% effective at preventing the disease.

Early data from the company states that its jab is highly effective in stopping people getting ill from the virus, and also works across all age groups. The UK has accepted an initial agreement for five million doses of the vaccine.

All in all, we don't deserve Dolly Parton.