Tom Hanks donates blood plasma again for coronavirus vaccine research
Tom Hanks is doing what he can to help others after recovering from COVID-19.
The 63-year-old star, who announced his positive diagnosis in early March while filming in Australia, shared an update with fans that he donated plasma again in the hopes of helping others fighting the disease.
"Plasmatic on 3! 1,2,3 PLASMATIC!" he captioned photos he shared on Wednesday of himself donating.
Convalescent plasma -- blood from survivors of the virus that contains antibodies -- 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.
At the end of April, the actor shared his first update that he was donating plasma. "Here’s last week's bag of plasma. Such a bag! After the paperwork, it’s as easy as taking a nap," he tweeted, thanking doctors at UCLA.
This came just days after Hanks expressed that he and his wife, Rita Wilson, who also recovered from the novel coronavirus, wanted to donate their blood.
"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," he 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.'"
The actor 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."
What to know about Coronavirus:
- How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained
- What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms
- Tracking the spread in the US and Worldwide: Coronavirus map
