Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson donating antibodies for coronavirus vaccine development

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are donating their blood to medical researchers in the race for a coronavirus cure after successfully winning their battle with COVID-19.

The actors were among the first high-profile celebrities to go public with their health crisis last month (Mar20), after falling ill while in Australia preparing to shoot Hanks’ new Elvis Presley film.

They have since made a full recovery and are back home in Los Angeles, and Wilson recently revealed they had enrolled in a medical study to determine if their antibodies would be useful for scientists working on developing a vaccine.

Now Hanks explains they have been approved to continue donating blood – and if experts are successful, the Forrest Gump star would love for the vaccine to be named after him.

“We just found out that we do carry the antibodies,” the 63-year-old told National Public Radio’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? 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 (sic).”