Dolly Parton may have played a role in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, but she isn’t using her influence to get it anytime soon.
The country music legend announced in April that she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University to help find a cure for the virus. That money helped Moderna create a vaccine. Despite her role, she will wait to get a shot.
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“I’m not going to get mine until some more people get theirs,” she told the Associated Press. “I don’t want it to look like I’m jumping the line just because I donated money. I’m very funny about that.”
The “Jolene” singer said she will get the vaccine, but wants to make sure it doesn’t look like she’s receiving preferential treatment.
“I’m going to get mine though, but I’m going to wait,” she said. “I’m at the age where I could have gotten mine legally last week. I turned 75. I was going to do it on my birthday, and I thought, ‘Nah, don’t do that.’ You’ll look like you’re just doing a show.
“None of my work is really like that. I wasn’t doing it for a show. I’m going to get mine. I want it. I’m going to get it. When I get it, I’ll probably do it on camera so people will know and I’ll tell them the truth, if I have symptoms and all that. Hopefully it’ll encourage people. I’m not going to jump the line just because I could.”
More than 446,000 people in the United States have died due to the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University. There are more than 2.2 million deaths around the world, while the number of cases has climbed to nearly 104 million around the world.
Parton, who has also shunned attention by twice turning down the Presidential Medal of Freedom, is steadfast that she wants other people to take care of themselves.
“I didn't donate the money so I could be protected,” she told CNN. “I did it for everybody."
The singer’s actions appear selfless, but she says it’s being blown out of proportion.
"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,” she told TODAY in November.