President Biden To Make Cancer Research A Priority Of His Administration

 

     If any president knows the devastating impact of cancer, it is Joe Biden. In 2015, his son, Beau, an attorney, child safety advocate, decorated veteran, Attorney General of Delaware, and a 2016 Delaware gubernatorial candidate, died of brain cancer. In 2018, his friend of nearly 35 years, John McCain, died of this same type of cancer. 

     In 2016, as part of the 21st Century Cures Act, he launched the "Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot," which secured $1.8 billion in funding to research new cancer cures and treatments. While out of office between 2017 and the launch of his presidential campaign in 2019, he authored the book "Promise Me, Dad," which described his personal feelings in the wake of the death of his son. In 2018, he gave a touching eulogy for John McCain, and during this time, he raised $400 million for cancer research with the Biden Cancer Initiative while still keeping his job as a law professor. 

     During his first months in office, President Biden made it clear that cancer research will be a priority of his administration: the funding from the Cancer Moonshot runs out by 2022. He has toured the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and held a bipartisan meeting on cancer in the White House, hoping to build public support and reach a consensus on concrete legislation on the disease.

     President Biden has proposed what he calls a "DARPA-H," a federal agency devoted specifically to developing new technologies on health issues. He has also proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes, a huge part of the tobacco market that are used to recruit new smokers and disproportionately target black people, as well as an extension of the 2009 flavored cigarette ban he organized to include cigars. These proposals would help stem the biggest cause of lung cancer.

     One thing is clear: President Biden will spend the rest of his life striking back at the insidious disease that took so many dear to him.