Johns Hopkins School Of Medicine among clinical trial sites testing COVID-19 therapies

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    BALTIMORE, MD (WJZ) — Johns Hopkins School of Medicine is one of more than 50 clinical trial sites across the country testing potential therapies for COVID-19 outpatients with mild to moderate symptoms.

The program is part of Operation Warp Speed.

“I think we’re really going to get to a place where we have this is a treatable disease as opposed to an untreatable disease,” Dr. Kelly Dooley, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said.

Dr. Dooley is the principal investigator of the trial at Johns Hopkins.

Her team of researchers has identified antibodies from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 and they’re using those to manufacture a treatment.

“It’s essentially supplemental antibodies that we know target the virus very well,” Dr. Dooley said.

The goal is to develop a remedy that someone could pick up at their local pharmacy which would stop the disease from worsening and prevent someone from winding up in the hospital.

“We’re trying to get people at the beginning of their infection or their illness with COVID so that we can see how well the therapeutic medication is going to alleviate their symptoms,” Rennisse McKinley, of Johns Hopkins, said.

The study is conducted in specially designed isolation pods outside hospital facilities.

Dr. Dooley said the science is providing hope for a return to a more normal future post-pandemic.

“So now we can start to see this light that wasn’t there before,” she said.

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