Feature …
HELLO (AGAIN)
The pandemic has thrown up all nature of unlikely heroes, but one of the most surprising and delightful has to be country and western star Dolly Parton.
I
n April 2020, it came to light
Centre in Tennessee. She broadcast
that 75-year-old country and
a message encouraging others to
western singer Dolly Parton had
follow suit. “I’m old enough to get
donated a million dollars towards
it and I’m smart enough to get it,”
Covid-19 research, which went
she said. She even sang an altered
towards funding the development
version of one of her best-known
of the Moderna vaccine. She was
hits from the 70s, Jolene, with
quick to respond, when most
“Jolene” replaced by “vaccine”!
of the rest of the world was still
“Because once you’re dead,
reeling from the shocks of both a
then that’s a bit too late,” she
world vastly altered by the virus
riffed, harnessing the song’s
and the experience of lockdown.
catchy tune and broad cultural
Although nearly a billion dollars in
resonance to become the
state funding followed, a number
soundtrack to her cause.
of researchers have been quoted
One of the most remarkable
stating that her donation helped
things about the timing of her
fund crucial work at the early stage
vaccination is that Parton wasn’t
of vaccine development.
first in line to have her shot before
Then, this March, she filmed
it was widely available. In fact, she
herself having her first shot of the
deliberately waited so that others
vaccine that she helped fund at
who needed it could have it first.
the Vanderbilt University Medical 14
SILVER DIGEST // AUTUMN 2021
Continued …
