Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were diagnosed with the COVID-19 coronavirus last month and were one of the first high-profile cases of the virus to be publicly announced. Of course, the couple recovered fairly quickly after self-quarantining in Australia and were back home in the US in no time.
They were pretty active on social media throughout it all, too, keeping us updated on their status and sharing information on how to keep safe and help stop the spread of the virus. And now, with both Hanks and Wilson fully recovered, they’re taking even more steps to help fight COVID-19.
Speaking in an interview on NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the beloved actor revealed that he and his wife are donating blood to help find a vaccine. After learning that they carried the correct antibodies, they’re now more than willing to give blood and help researchers find a cure for the virus.
“A lot of the questions are what do we do now?” Hanks said. “Is there something we can do? And, in fact, we just found out that we do carry the antibodies. We have not only been approached, we have said, ‘Do you want our blood? Can we give plasma?’”
Of course, there’s no telling if a cure will be found from their blood, but if there is one discovered, the Toy Story star has already come up with a name for it: the “Hank-ccine.”
Hanks and his wife certainly aren’t the first to donate blood for the cause and they won’t be the last, either. But it’s obviously great to see them stepping up and being so pro-active about it. After all, they know firsthand how bad this virus can be and are now doing everything they can to help stop the pandemic.
Unfortunately, though, even with the couple – and many others – donating blood, we may still have a bit of a wait before a cure is found. But at any rate, we’re just happy to hear that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are now back on their feet and with any luck, the world will pull through this nightmare soon enough and come out stronger on the other side.
