stock here: well she was fairly old, but still…..it’s a shame. But look at her in 2022, she looked great.
Look at her eyes as she took the jab, almost like she knew. And look at this misshapen heart…almost like this posing doctor knew too.
The underlying claim is substantially true:
- In April 2020, Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for COVID-19 research. Vanderbilt created the Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund.
- Some of that money supported Vanderbilt research used in the Phase 1 testing of Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine. Vanderbilt researcher Mark Denison said her funding supported critical early work, including development of a test showing whether the Moderna vaccine produced a potentially protective immune response.
- There is unusually strong documentary backup for this: the New England Journal of Medicine paper on Moderna’s Phase 1 trial actually lists the “Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund” among the sources of support.
- Parton then received a COVID vaccine publicly on camera at Vanderbilt on March 2, 2021, administered by her longtime physician/friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, and publicly encouraged others to get vaccinated. Vanderbilt documents the event and photograph.
- Contemporary accounts identify the shot she received as Moderna, which was fitting given the research her donation had helped support.
The distinction I’d make is this:
“Dolly Parton helped fund research that contributed to the development/testing of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, and she later received the Moderna vaccine publicly on camera.”
That’s well supported.
Calling her a “backer of Moderna” without qualification is a little loose because it could imply that she invested in Moderna, owned Moderna shares, financed the company directly, or had a commercial relationship with Moderna. I haven’t found evidence of that. Her $1 million went to Vanderbilt medical research, and part of that research directly supported the Moderna vaccine program.
The strongest piece of backup is actually the peer-reviewed NEJM paper: its funding section names NIH/NIAID funding, Vanderbilt grants, and the Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund for the Moderna mRNA-1273 Phase 1 work.