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Dolly Parton Put Her Money Where Her Mouth Is to Help with the Coronavirus

Back in April, roughly one month into the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, singer Dolly Parton donated $1 million toward a COVID vaccine. Her donation was instrumental in the creation of Moderna's vaccine. Data shows this vaccine to have a 94.5 percent efficiency rate.

"I'm just happy that anything I do can help somebody else. When I donated the money to the COVID fund I just wanted to do good and, evidently, it is! Let's just hope we can find a cure real soon," Parton said earlier this week.

When Parton made the donation in April, TIME asked her about her decision, something she said she did because she followed her heart.

"I just thought, when this came up, I just thought it was the thing to do. I always just follow my heart," she explained. "I always have a little voice in my ear that says, 'Do this, do that' and when and so when this all came about I thought that would be a wonderful thing."

Her donation, coupled with those from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Emory University, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, made the vaccine possible, a preliminary report stated.