Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are helping find coronavirus vaccine

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson will donate blood to help find a coronavirus vaccine.

The Hollywood legends battled coronavirus earlier this month after contracting it in Australia and they are now going to give plasma to try and help fight the global pandemic.

Speaking in an NPR podcast, Hanks said they were left wondering whether there was something they could do?

“And, in fact, we just found out that we do carry the antibodies,” he said.

“We have not only been approached, we have said, 'Do you want our blood? Can we give plasma?' 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’.”

Meanwhile, the 63-year-old actor previously revealed Rita struggled with coronavirus more than he did as she had a “much-higher fever” than him as well as other symptoms.

“Rita went through a tougher time than I did. She had a much-higher fever and she had some other symptoms. She lost her sense of taste and smell,” he said.

“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. It lasted a while.”

And the 'Forrest Gump' star admits having the virus was "the weirdest thing".

“Whoever it was, doctor, nurse, would come into our air pressurised room, our isolation rooms. She said, 'How are you feeling?' and I said, 'I just had the weirdest thing’,” he said.

“I just tried to do basic stretches and exercises on the floor and I couldn't even get halfway through. And she looked at me through her glasses like she was talking to the dumbest human being. And she said, 'You have COVID-19’.”

Rita Wilson has also previously spoke about how she had 'extreme side effects' during her coronavirus treatment.

Speaking with CBS This Morning’s Gayle King, the 63-year-old actress and singer said she’s now feeling “great” more than a month after testing positive in early March.

At the time of her illness, she started feeling “very tired ... extremely achy, uncomfortable [and] didn't want to be touched.” As those symptoms persisted, she also developed a fever, which rose to 38.8, and “chills like I’ve never had before.”

She was then given the controversial drug chloroquine - one of two anti-malaria drugs hyped by US President Donald Trump.

“I know people have been talking about this drug, but I can only tell you that I don’t know if the drug worked or it was just time for the fever to break,” she said. “My fever did break, but the chloroquine had such extreme side effects. I was completely nauseous. I had vertigo. I could not walk and my muscles felt very weak.”

With reporting by Bang Showbiz.

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