Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson Donate Blood For Coronavirus Research

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are giving their blood for the greater good.

After battling COVID-19 (coronavirus) last month, the star couple have decided to donate their blood and plasma for research into the novel virus. Hanks shared the news while conversing about he and his wife’s experience with the highly-contagious disease during a recent appearance on the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! podcast show.

"We are just fine, dandy,” Hanks said in an update on the couple’s recovery. “We had all of the flu-like symptoms. My wife, Rita, was a little worse off than me. She had a very high temperature. And we were isolated so that we would not give it to anyone else.”

What’s more, the Green Mile actor shared that he and his wife “just found out that we do carry the antibodies” for COVID-19, and revealed the pair volunteered to donate their blood and plasma in helping researchers create a vaccine. "We will be giving it now to the places that hope to work on,” Hanks added, quipping that he hopes to call it “the Hank-ccine.”

As fans know, the Mamma Mia! actress and her husband contracted the disease in mid-March while Hanks was shooting the upcoming Elvis Presley biopic in Australia. The stars were among the first A-listers to test positive for coronavirus, which has since infected many more stars amid the global outbreak. After two weeks of documenting their recovery on social media amid their brief hospitalization and self-quarantine, the couple finally returned to Los Angeles.

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 3 million people to become infected, resulting in more than 207,000 deaths. Of that number, the United States accounts for more than 987,900 confirmed cases of coronavirus and over 55,400 deaths related to the virus.

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