Tom Hanks Jokingly Says He 'Would Like to Call' Eventual Coronavirus Vaccine the 'Hanks-ccine'

After recovering from the coronavirus, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are looking for ways to help fight the pandemic.

During NPR’s podcast Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, Hanks said he and his wife, both 63, will be donating their blood to help develop a coronavirus vaccine — and he has an idea for what the eventual vaccine should be called.

“A lot of the question is what now? What do we do now? Is there something we could do? And in fact we just found out that we do carry the antibodies,” Hanks said.

“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 Hanks-ccine,” he continued.


Hanks also gave an update on his and Wilson's conditions.

“We are just fine and dandy. We had all of the flu-like symptoms,” the Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood actor said. “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.”

The couple first announced that they had tested positive for coronavirus on March 11 while in Australia, where Hanks was shooting a film. They have since returned to Los Angeles after self-quarantining in Australia for two weeks and have been open about their experience with the contagious respiratory illness.

Wilson recently said that contracting coronavirus alongside Hanks made it slightly more bearable.

“I think that having the virus at the same time made it that little bit easier,” she told The Guardian. “We were taking care of each other instead of having the pressure of taking care of one person and no one taking care of you or understanding that the person at home needs a break.”

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