Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson will get vaccine ‘long after everybody who truly needs to get it gets it’

Tom Hanks opened up about his plans with wife Rita Wilson to get vaccinated for COVID-19 at the right time, on Monday’s edition of the Today show. 

‘We’ll be getting it long after everybody who truly needs to get it gets it,’ said the Oscar-winner, 64, more than nine months after he and Wilson announced they had both tested positive in March.

The Forrest Gump star said that when he does get vaccinated, he will do so in public fashion to encourage others, a vow ex-presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have taken, as well.

He stressed that a critical aspect of his battle with the virus was that he and Wilson had locked down in order to quell the spread.

‘I think that was much more important, as the second half of the COVID-19 formula, was that we didn’t give it to anybody,’ Hanks said. ‘Locking down, we’d wear masks and we still do, not just so that we don’t catch it but that you don’t give it to somebody.’

The Saving Private Ryan star said he and Wilson weathered ‘a tough couple of 10 days’ in their initial battle with the virus, and have since donated blood to help researchers after the discovery of antibodies in their systems.

Hanks revealed his and Wilson’s health status March 11, on the same day NBA star Rudy Goebert tested positive for the virus, shutting down the NBA for months.

‘Hello folks. @ritawilson and I want to thank everyone here Down Under who are taking such good care of us,’ he said on social media. ‘We have Covid-19 and are in isolation so we do not spread it to anyone else. There are those for whom it could lead to a very serious illness.

At the time, Hanks and Wilson were being cared for at Gold Coast University Hospital in Australia, where he was filming a movie.

‘There are things we can all do to get through this by following the advice of experts and taking care of ourselves and each other, no? Remember, despite all the current events, there is no crying in baseball.’

Hanks appeared to promote his latest movie News of the World, which debuts Christmas Day on Netflix.