President Joe Biden just relaunched cancer moonshot, the Washington Examiner reports.
Biden first launched cancer moonshot as vice president during the final year of President Barack Obama’s administration. Biden did so following the death of his son Beau Biden from an aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma. The younger Biden died from the illness in May of 2015 at only 46 years of age.
Cancer moonshot is a government initiative that aims to eradicate the illness. Originally, $1.8 billion was allocated towards this effort through the 21st Century Cures Act.
But, now, the initiative has only about $400 million left from that original $1.8 billion. And so, Biden is looking to revitalize the effort.
“We can end cancer”
Biden announced the relaunch of cancer moonshot on Wednesday. He did so via social media and an event that was held at the White House.
“We can end cancer as we know it,” Biden said at the White House event that included the vice president as well as several members of Congress. “Let there be no doubt, this is a presidential, White House priority, period.”
Biden went on to say that he refuses to believe that it “is beyond our capacity” to end cancer. “I refuse to believe it,” he insisted.
“Let’s show the world what’s possible,” Biden said. “Let’s show the world that we’re committed. Let’s show we can do big things.”
Some specifics
Biden set the goal of this latest cancer moonshot as cutting the cancer death rate at least in half over the next 25 years. To put this goal into perspective, over the past two decades, the age-adjusted cancer death rate has been reduced by 25 percent.
Biden is looking to achieve this goal by various means, including by research and by pushing cancer screenings. Reports indicate that over 9.5 million cancer screenings have been missed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
As part of the relaunch, Biden is incorporating a White House Cancer Cabinet into the cancer moonshot. And, he is asking Congress to approve a proposal to add the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Biden is calling for this to be a bipartisan effort. It is unclear, though, how much Republican support he has.
