It’s definitely a worthy goal, let’s be clear, and it would be wonderful if there was an actual plan, but, like with most of his stuff, it’s more of a talking point
Biden outlines ambitious ‘moonshot’ effort to reduce cancer deaths in the U.S.
President Biden traveled to Boston on Monday to promote the cancer-fighting effort he first launched in February, with the goal of halving cancer death rates in the United States in the next 25 years.
“I give you my word as a Biden, this cancer moonshot is one of the reasons why I ran for president,” Biden said, describing it as part of his “unity agenda” of initiatives that even political opponents could support.
“Beating cancer is something we can do together,” the president said, noting that the disease does not discriminate between Republicans and Democrats.
So, what is he supposedly doing?
Ahead of the remarks, the White House announced a new biotechnology and biomanufacturing initiative, which is intended to galvanize sophisticated medical research and manufacturing in the United States. An accompanying executive order calls on federal agencies ranging from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Homeland Security to focus on the effort.
The White House also appointed biomedical executive Dr. Renee Wegrzyn to lead the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, an agency created by Biden earlier this year, to “push the limits of U.S. biomedical and health research and innovation.” Wegrzyn will be the agency’s first leader.
The White House notice on Biden’s cancer-related remarks says that the National Cancer Institute has begun a four-year study intended to allow for cancer detection via a simple blood test, without having to resort to more invasive procedures like colonoscopies or biopsies.
Yeah, that’s pretty much all that is offered in the article. That trial is a good thing, especially for internal cancers. It might have been more worthwhile to allocate a lot more money for this than for the idiotic climate change scam stuff and so much other wasteful spending in the last few partisan bills.
This is what the fact sheet says
New Goals for the Cancer Moonshot
Based on the progress made and the possibility before us, President Biden today set new national goals for the Cancer Moonshot:
- Working together over the next 25 years, we will cut today’s age-adjusted death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent.
- We will improve the experience of people and their families living with and surviving cancer.
Taken together, these actions will drive us toward ending cancer as we know it today.
25 years is a long time to cut it by just 50%. That’s not a moon shot. But, in fairness, the rest of the fact sheet does have some details and more planning than what we saw under Obama. So, if he can get the ball rolling, fantastic. If future presidents keep it going, awesome. But, how about, again, allocating the money for this rather than other stuff that is dumb?