Tom Hanks posted on his Instagram pictures of what appears to be donating convalescent plasma to help in the fight against COVID-19. After recovering from the virus, Tom has been actively involved in volunteering to defeat the virus.
Convalescent Plasma, blood from survivors of the virus, can be very useful to research as it may contain antibodies that can potentially help people with severe COVID-19 to boost their ability to fight the virus.
Hanks captioned the photo, "Plasmatic on 3! 1,2,3 PLASMATIC! Hanx."
View this post on InstagramPlasmatic on 3! 1,2,3 PLASMATIC! Hanx
A post shared by Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) on May 27, 2020 at 10:11am PDT
At the end of April, Hanks also shared a similar photo of what appeared to be his first time 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.
Here's last week's bag of plasma. Such a bag! After the paperwork, it's as easy as taking a nap. Thanks @arimoin and UCLA. Hanx pic.twitter.com/15WblGiVwe "” Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) April 29, 2020
In early March, Hanks, 63 years old, was infected with coronavirus while he was filming in Australia. His wife, Rita Wilson was also positive, and they were hospitalized in Queensland. They became the first A-list celebrities to test positive.
"Rita went through a tougher time than I did," Hanks has said about their experiences with the illness. "She had a much higher fever and she had some other symptoms. She lost her sense of taste and smell. She got absolutely no joy from food for a better part of three weeks ... She was so nauseous she had to crawl on the floor from the bed to the facilities."
Wilson spoke about the terrible symptoms, including fever and chills she experienced as a result. "I felt extremely achy, uncomfortable, didn't want to be touched, and then the fever started."
Hanks told NPR in April that he hopes the plasma will be beneficial toward vaccine research.
"We just found out that we do carry the antibodies," Hanks said during an interview with NPR. "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."
Currently, there is no vaccine or universally accepted treatment to fight COVID-19. A preliminary study released late last week found that the death rate of those infused with survivor plasma was about half that of similar patients who did not receive the plasma.
