President Joe Biden said Friday that once the coronavirus pandemic is defeated, his administration will target another deadly disease: cancer.
“I want you to know that once we overcome Covid, we will do everything we can to end cancer as we know it,” Biden said in a speech after touring the massive Pfizer coronavirus vaccine manufacturing center in Kalamazoo. , Michigan.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, with nearly 600,000 people dying of cancer in 2019. Nearly 1.9 million new cancers will be diagnosed in the United States in 2021 , American Cancer Society love researchers.
One of Biden’s children, Beau Biden, died at age 46 from an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Biden said two White House offices, the President’s Council of Science and Technology Advisors and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, will be involved in developing an “advanced research effort on cancer and others. diseases ”.
Dr. Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard University, will be the co-leader of the two offices, Biden said.
The president compared the initiative to DARPA, the Pentagon’s agency responsible for testing new technologies.
As a presidential candidate, Biden had proposed the creation of this agency as part of the “Made in America” board of his platform. His campaign website was called the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H.
According to reports, then-candidate Biden would present the proposal frequently during private campaign fundraisers, although he rarely spoke about it at public events.
Biden’s planned announcement appeared intended to send the message that his administration has tightened the pandemic.
This message was underscored by the location where he chose to deliver it: a 1,300-acre vaccine manufacturing site where millions of doses of Pfizer’s Covf vaccine are being produced, packaged, frozen and shipped.
“We are now at a point where we have seen the average daily number of people vaccinated almost double that of the week before I took office, up to about 1.7 million people a day receiving a shot,” Biden said. , adding: “I’m on track to surpass my commitment” to manage 100 million shots in his first 100 days as president.
But “despite progress, we are still on the teeth of a pandemic,” Biden warned.
He noted that new strains of the virus are emerging and that the United States is about to soon surpass the 500,000 death toll due to Covid.
“If there’s one message to get across to everyone in this country it’s this: vaccines are safe. Please take the vaccine when it’s your turn and available,” Biden said.
Biden urged Americans to continue to take precautions for their health and safety, including hand washing, social distancing and the use of masks.
“Look, I know it’s awkward, but you’re making a commitment when you do,” Biden said. “Everyone has to do their part for themselves, their loved ones and, yes, their country. It is a patriotic duty.”