Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson To Donate Blood For Coronavirus Research After Overcoming Virus
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — After battling and overcoming COVID-19, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are donating their blood to aid research towards a potential coronavirus treatment.
Hanks and his wife shared their journey from being diagnosed with the deadly virus in March to being given a clean bill of health in April.
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In an interview for the NPR show "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" Hanks said he and his wife would be donating their blood.
Host Peter Sagal asked Hanks, 63, about life post-coronavirus and to which Hanks responded, "Well, a lot of the question is, 'What now?' You know?" Hanks said. "What do we do now? 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?' And, in fact, we will be giving it now to the places that hope to work on what I would like to call the Hank-ccine," the actor joked.
Using plasma from recovered people who have fought the virus, though still experimental, is being researched as a way to fight the virus when given to a sick patient.