Dolly Parton Explains Why She Hasn't Gotten The COVID-19 Vaccine Yet

Dolly Parton is waiting a little longer before she gets the COVID-19 vaccine. The country singer, who donated $1 million to coronavirus vaccine research at the start of the pandemic, explained why she still hasn't been vaccinated in a new interview with The Associated Press.

"I’m not going to get mine until some more people get theirs. I don’t want it to look like I’m jumping the line just because I donated money," Parton told the publication. "I’m very funny about that. I’m going to get mine though, but I’m going to wait."

"I'm at the age where I could have gotten mine legally last week," she continued. "I turned 75. I was going to do it on my birthday, and I thought, 'Nah, don't do that. You'll look like you're just doing a show.' None of my work is really like that."

The "Jolene" singer reassured that she is definitely "going to get" the vaccine and she hopes her shot will encourage others to get it as well. "When I get it, I'll probably do it on camera so people will know and I'll tell them the truth, if I have symptoms and all that," she added. "Hopefully it'll encourage people. I'm not going to jump the line just because I could."

In the interview, Parton also explained what led her to make her donation to vaccine research.

"I follow my heart. I'm a person of faith and I pray all the time that God will lead me into the right direction and let me know what to do. When the pandemic first hit, that was my first thought, 'I need to do something to try to help find a vaccination,'" she said. "I just did some research with the people at Vanderbilt — they're wonderful people, they've been so good through the years to my people in times of illness and all that. I just asked if I could donate a million dollars to the research for a vaccine."

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