Yahoo Movies Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are taking part in COVID-19 vaccine study
After recovering from the coronavirus, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson are now taking part in a study which is working towards developing a vaccine for COVID-19.
Hanks and Wilson tested positive for the virus while in Australia, where Hanks was in pre-production for a new movie.
The couple were then quarantined, and received hospital treatment, before returning to the US at the end of March.
— Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) March 12, 2020
Appearing in her first interview since recovery, Wilson told CBS's This Morning Show: “We've recently been part of a (research) study and we've donated our blood, and we're waiting to hear back if our antibodies will be helpful in developing a vaccine.
“But also if we are able to donate plasma that can be used as donation to other people who are suffering from the virus because we are immune.”
Wilson also spoke about being treated with the malaria drug chloroquine.
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“I can only tell you that I don't know if the drug worked or if it was just time for the fever to break," she said.
“The fever did break, but the chloroquine had such extreme side effects I was completely nauseous and I had vertigo and my muscles felt very weak.
“I think people have to be very considerate about that drug. We don't really know if it is helpful in this case.”
Hanks appeared on Saturday Night Live last weekend, shooting an opening monologue from his home, the first time that the long-running comedy has ever broadcast from anywhere other than its studio.
Dubbed Saturday Night Live At Home, it featured Hanks sporting a shaved head.
“It is a strange time to try and funny,” he noted, adding that he's been the 'celebrity canary in the coal mine', having contracted and recovered from coronavirus.
