ABC/Ida Mae Astute(LOS ANGELES) — Tom Hanks is doing what he can to help others after recovering from COVID-19.
The star, who announced his positive diagnosis in early March while filming in Australia, shared that he and his wife, Rita Wilson, who also recovered from the novel coronavirus, would like to donate their blood to help find a vaccine.
“A lot of the question is — is what now? What do we do now? Is there something we can do? And, in fact, we just found out that we do carry the antibodies,” the 63-year-old actor said while appearing on NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! podcast.
“We have not only been approached, we have said, ‘Do you want our blood? Can we give plasma?'” he continued. “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.'”
Convalescent plasma — blood from survivors of the virus that contains antibodies to the disease — is being used by researchers in hopes that it “can be given to people with severe COVID-19 to boost their ability to fight the virus,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
Hanks previously detailed his fight with the virus, recalling “bad body aches” and feeling “very fatigued,” in an interview with Military Defense Radio.
He said that Wilson “went through a tougher time,” than he did. “She had a much higher fever. She had lost her sense of taste and sense of smell,” he said. “She got absolutely no joy from food for a better part of three weeks.”
Hanks added that his wife “was so nauseous, she had to crawl on the floor from the bed to the facilities.”
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