Dolly Parton insists it won’t “kill anybody to wear their mask”.
Dolly Parton at the 2019 CMA Awards
The 75-year-old music legend has been a vocal advocate for mask-wearing, social distancing, and vaccines amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and previously donated $1 million to help fund vaccine research.
And Dolly has now said she still believes people should “do our part in being careful” by continuing to keep up with safety measures.
She said: “I’m not one to tell people what to do. But I was just happy to be part of the vaccine drive, and I think we all certainly need to do our part in being careful.
“Whether you get the shot or not, you need to be mindful. And I don’t think it’d kill anybody to wear their mask and to do their social distancing, especially now that we have new variants of the pandemic going around.
“So, I really think people should just be very cautious, and careful and mindful, and like I said I’m not one to bother around in people’s lives, I just try to do my part the best I can.”
The ‘Jolene’ hitmaker also said she didn’t mean to “get in the middle of controversy” by helping to fund vaccine research, as she wasn’t aware there were people who didn’t want a vaccine.
She added to Mic magazine: “I’m not one to get in the middle of controversy. When I first donated my money to help with it, and I got my shot, I thought everybody was waiting in line to get their shot. I didn’t realise there were people not wanting to do it whether for religious reasons, health reasons, personal reasons whatever it be.”
The '9 to 5' singer donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville in April last year to fund the Moderna vaccine, and said at the time she hoped her money had gone some way towards helping to "heal this world".
She said: "I'm sure many millions of dollars from many people went into that.
"But I just felt so proud to have been part of that little seed money that will hopefully grow into something great and help to heal this world.
"I'm a very proud girl today to know I had anything at all to do with something that's going to help us through this crazy pandemic."
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