Credit: Getty Images / PixarThis article has been updated since it was original published to include the most up-to-date information.
Tom Hanks, the star of Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story series, was found to be infected with the coronavirus known as COVID-19 while on vacation in Australia several months ago. He and his wife were the first two celebrities reported to become infected.
Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, have both recovered from the disease, and we have now learned that the actors’ blood will be used by researchers currently fighting the enduring pandemic.
“Well, a lot of the question is what now, you know? What do we do now? Is there something we can do? And, in fact, we just found out that we do carry the antibodies,” Hanks explained in a recent interview with NPR. He added that both he and his wife gave blood and plasma “to work on what I would like to call the Hank-ccine.”
The actor recently shared pictures of his donated blood and plasma on his Instagram, which you can see here:
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But Hanks and Wilson are just two people responding to a call from both the American Red Cross and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They ask all those who have been fortunate to recover from COVID-19 donate so that the virus-defeating antibodies that they now carry can be used to help another person’s fight. It is just one of the therapies being researched and the entire world works towards a cure.
Tom Hanks is one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood, working with Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar on projects such a Splash, Turner and Hootch, the Toy Story Anthology, and Saving Mr. Banks. And he was not the only actor test positive for the virus. Disney and Marvel star Idris Elba also tested positive despite not displaying any symptoms as Hanks and Wilson did.
Hanks’ recovery is one of many recent uplifting signs that this pandemic can be beaten and though things may not be the same again, some normalcy will soon return and everything is going to be okay.
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