Mon. November 13, 2000
Los Angeles, CA -
Dr. David Ho, (Time Magazine's 1996 "Man of the Year") head of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, Dr. Irvin Chen of the UCLA AIDS Institute, and Dr. Rafi Ahmed of the Emory Vaccine Center announced a major initiative aimed at finding an AIDS vaccine.
The group announced three AIDS Vaccine bicycle rides with a goal of netting $15 million within the next 12 months to fund critical vaccine research. The rides are operated in conjunction with Pallotta TeamWorks, the largest private event fund development company in the United States,
"This initiative will provide us with more unrestricted discretionary research dollars than we ever dreamed of before. That means new theories will get tested. It means we can go to work immediately on the approaches we believe are the most promising. This is critical to eradicating this disease," said Dr. Chen.
More than 6,000 ordinary citizens will be recruited to participate in epic bicycle journeys across Montana, Alaska, and across the U.S. Canadian border.
The initiative was launched with huge ads in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Globe this past weekend. Over 2,100 people have already signed on.
Last year in support of the three research institutes, Pallotta TeamWorks created the Alaska AIDS Vaccine Rides at which some 1,500 ordinary citizens netted an astonishing $4.1 million to fund maverick science aimed at finding a vaccine. (Pallotta TeamWorks has netted over $150 million in the last seven years for the causes of AIDS and breast cancer through its AIDSRides USA and its breast cancer 3-Day events. Over 75,000 people have walked or ridden, and more than 3 million people have donated.)
Over 34 million people are HIV-infected around the world. Thirty-one million are the poorest of the world's poor. Global estimates are that if a vaccine is not found, over 75 million adults and children will die a difficult death by AIDS in the next twenty years. It will be the worst human catastrophe in history. "Over 16,000 new infections occur everyday," according to Doctor Ho.
The Montana AIDS Vaccine Ride stretches over 500 miles and takes place July 30th to August 5th.
Producer Dan Pallotta said, "these rides are for everyone - not athletes. My Dad will be 66 and he and I are riding together. My brother-in-law, who's a Boston police officer with a wife and two kids, is riding with us. This is for everyone who is unwilling to allow this kind of death toll to materialize."
The Alaska Ride goes 500 miles from Fairbanks to Anchorage from August 20th to August 25th.
The Canada to U.S. Ride goes 400 miles from Montreal through New England on to Portland Maine from September 5th - 9th. Because the campaigns are filling fast, interested citizens are encouraged to register on-line at http://www.vaccineride.org or to phone the campaign office at 888-553-4567 to register or request a full-color itinerary.
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