Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson are donating their blood to medical research in a bid to help develop a coronavirus vaccine.
The couple were one of the first high-profile individuals to contract Covid-19, and tested positive to the bug while in Queensland, Australia, where the actor was shooting the Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Elvis Presley biopic.
Speaking on NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! over the weekend, the Forest Gump actor playfully quipped he’d like to label the medicine the “Hank-ccine”.
After falling ill, they quarantined in an Australian hospital and received round-the-clock care from medics, who they thanked profusely on social media.
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have donated blood for coronavirus research (Image: PA)
Regularly taking to Instagram informing their fans of their recovery, they made a full recovery and recently jetted back to the States, continuing to quarantine in their California home.
When the arrived back home, they decided to take part in a medical study in order to identify if their antibodies would help with a possible vaccine.
“We just found out that we do carry the antibodies,” he said on the public radio game show.
The high-profile couple tested positive for covid-19 last month while in Australia (Image: Instagram)
“We have not only been approached; we have said, do you want our blood? Can we give plasma?
“And, in fact, we will be giving it now to the places that hope to work on what I would like to call the Hank-ccine.”
In March, the actor announced on Instagram he and his wife “felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches,” and then underwent a test to see if they had contracted the bug.
The actor wants to label the vaccine the ‘Hank-ccine’ (Image: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
Tom explained Rita suffered worse symptoms because of the side-effects from the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine – which had been administered for her high fever.
“She was so nauseous she had to crawl on the floor from the bed to the facilities,” he added.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
