BUFFALO, N.Y. — Ride for Roswell organizers have targeted May 1 for making a decision as to whether the ride can roll as planned on June 27 given the uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. In the meantime, funds that are being donated are being directed at research connected to the fight against COVID-19.
Roswell Park President and CEO Dr. Candace Johnson said the cancer center is joining forces with pharmaceutical innovators as well as other local health care providers to test drugs that could allow for COVID-19 treatment without many patients requiring a ventilator.
"It's kind of like a storm of an immune response in your lungs and you can't breathe," Johnson said. "The only way to keep you alive is put you on a ventilator. So that immune response that's going on in your lungs in a COVID-19 patient. We have our immunologists here which are right on the front lines of understanding the immune response... and there are many drugs that are out there that can help to control that immune response storm that's going on.. We've also collaborated with UB, Great Lakes Health, and the Catholics to be able to provide those drugs in a clinical trial."
Johnson says that research dollars raised through fundraising events like the Ride for Roswell, 11-Day Power Play, and Empire State Ride among others that benefit the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation are being used to support the COVID-19 research.
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