Joe Biden, channeling Kennedy, say’s his ‘moonshot’ is curing cancer

The nation will begin the work of curing cancer once and for all, according to President Biden’s “moonshot” challenge.

“President Kennedy set a goal to win the space race against Russia,” Biden said in Boston Monday. “Now, in our time, on the 60th anniversary of his clarion call we face another inflection point.”

“This cancer moonshot is one of the reasons why I ran for president,” he added. “Cancer does not discriminate, red or blue. It does not care if you are a Republican or a Democrat. Beating cancer is something we can do together, and that’s why I’m here today.”

Biden appeared at UMass Boston’s JFK Presidential Library for what was billed as a “Cancer Moonshot” speech, harkening back to President John F. Kennedy’s own 1962 “moonshot” speech, given ahead of the nation’s successful plan to send a manned mission to the moon.

“This is a powerful place for reflections and remembrance,” Biden said of the Kennedy library, noting that in 1962, the nation was at a different “inflection point” when Kennedy spoke of doing things “because they are hard.”

“He spoke of possibilities,” Biden said. “In America, we believe that anything is possible.”

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, behind heart disease, Biden said, and is a problem that affects the majority of American households, regardless of political party.

Biden actually began the initiative during his last stay in the White House, in 2016 as vice president in the Obama administration. He said the work continued in the years since.

“When I was elected president, I was determined to supercharge the Cancer Moonshot,” Biden said.

Moving forward Biden said cancer research will be entirely transparent and available to all researchers and will focus on advances in biotechnology and other emerging technologies, like mRNA vaccines, which Biden said in the future could be used to target cancer cells directly.

“Imagine the possibilities, vaccines that could prevent cancer,” Biden said. “Imagine getting a simple shot, instead of going to chemo, or getting a pill at a local hospital.”

The American Cancer Society welcomed the president’s continued focus on the deadly disease.

“The President’s ongoing commitment to changing the trajectory of cancer is critical, as we need a national commitment to enact policies that will have wide-reaching impact. We’ve made tremendous strides in how we prevent, detect, treat and survive cancer, but there is still much work to be done to improve the lives of those touched by this disease,” the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s President Lisa Lacasse said in a release.

According to the ACS, more than 1.9 million people will learn they have cancer this year, and more than 609,000 will die due to the disease.

“The President understands the ongoing impact of this disease on families across this country – having endured the loss of his son Beau following a cancer diagnosis. And he’s not alone. Everyone knows someone who has been impacted by this disease, whether a family member, friend or being diagnosed themselves,” Lacasse said.

“President Kennedy called for a moonshot — and we didn’t have all the tools we needed,” Biden said. “For a cancer moonshot, we do.”