Country singer Dolly Parton joked about getting her coronavirus vaccination shot Tuesday at Vanderbilt Health in Tennessee, alluding to her help funding the Moderna vaccine.
Parton, 75, posted a photo of herself getting the shot to her social media accounts with the caption “Dolly gets a dose of her own medicine.” Last year, Parton announced that she had donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University to help find a cure for Covid-19.
She also posted a video urging her followers to be vaccinated if they are eligible and said that she was “old enough” and “smart enough” to get her shot. Parton also played with the words to her famed ballad “Jolene” for the occasion.
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“Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine,” Parton sang. “I’m begging of you please don’t hesitate.”
Parton encouraged people to “get out there and get your shot” before showing her own vaccination, administered by her friend Dr. Naji Abumrad. She told fans that it didn’t hurt.
“I’m so glad that you’re here and that you’re giving the great message,” Abumrad said.
Parton mentioned Abumrad in a post last year announcing her donation. Her participation in the Moderna vaccine research was revealed in a preliminary report that credited “the Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund” in November.
“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,” Parton said on NBC’s “TODAY” show in November. “Evidently, it is. Let’s just hope we find a cure real soon.”
The Food and Drug Administration authorized Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in December, making it the second vaccine to be given the special authorization. It appeared that Parton received her first dose Tuesday and will need to get her second dose in about four weeks, following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations.
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Parton told The Associated Press last month that although she was eligible to get the shot, she wanted to wait so it didn’t seem as though she had received preferential treatment.
“I don’t want it to look like I’m jumping the line just because I donated money,” Parton said. “I’m very funny about that.”
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