President Joe Biden plans to cut cancer death rates in half over the next 25 years by reviving the White House’s “cancer moonshot,” which he started as vice president.
On Wednesday, at a White House event, Joe and Jill Biden were expected to talk about the goal and motivate people to get cancer screenings they might have overlooked because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Solid Scheme
Biden’s new cancer moonshot will encompass detection, preventative measures, and treatment, as well as problems with service delivery and access.
The White House will also set up a cancer cabinet and hold summit and roundtable talks as Biden takes over as head of the area.
Thus, a senior government official said Biden was not breaking his promise to cure cancer, even though the official didn’t use the word in a media interview or other White House materials.
Biden relaunches cancer-fighting ‘moonshot’ https://t.co/3SHwAp4Fcn pic.twitter.com/zdvAAgMo3R
— The Verge (@verge) February 2, 2022
“I don’t believe they said we were going to get rid of all cancer at once. However, you cure cancer one person at a time, or 100 patients at a time,” according to the official.
Another link between cancer and the epidemic is COVID-19 medical and scientific advances could be used to treat cancer, says a senior administration official.
The official said there’s a lot of talk about whether an mRNA vaccine, like the ones made by Pfizer and Moderna, can be made to identify and attack cancerous cells.
President Joe Biden is committing to reduce the cancer death rate by 50% — a new goal for the “moonshot” initiative against the disease that was announced in 2016 when he was vice president. https://t.co/5ZQJf0wEZf
— Josh Boak (@joshboak) February 2, 2022
Almost $400 million of the $1.8 billion Congress gave to cancer research in 2016 hasn’t been spent yet. The representative said they were “very optimistic there would be a lot of money going forward.”
“There’s one thing everyone agrees on, no matter what party they belong to or what they do, which is how cancer affects their lives,” the source said.
The Initial Debut of the Initiative
Biden’s initial moonshot was released in 2016, during the last year of Obama’s term as president. The initiative aimed to achieve a decade of advancement in five years by bringing together public, corporate, nonprofit, and intellectual groups.
After Donald Trump was elected president, Biden kept working with the Biden Cancer Initiative, before deciding to run for president. It was meant to encourage collaborative research work and improve patient care.
Biden is reviving the moonshot at the same time his legislative priorities aren’t moving forward on Capitol Hill. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia called Biden’s Build Back Better agenda “dead” earlier this week.
Glioblastoma, a deadly brain disease, claimed the life of Beau Biden, Biden’s oldest son, in 2015. Beau was 46 years old at his death, which occurred in 2015.
On Inauguration Day, he said, “We only have one thing to be sad about: Beau isn’t here.” One can’t help but wonder if the program’s revival is somewhat a distraction.
