In a press conference on Tuesday where he delivered remarks on “expanding access to mental health care,” President Joe Biden bragged that his administration had “ended cancer as we know it.”
“One of the things I’m always asked is: You know, why — why Americans have sort of lost faith for a while on being — being able to do big things,” Biden began.
“If you could do anything at all, Joe, what would you do?” he continued. “I said, ‘I’d cure cancer.’ And they looked at me like, ‘Why cancer?’ Because no one thinks we can. That’s why. And we can. We’ve ended cancer as we know it.”
Biden: "I said I'd cure cancer they looked at me like, why cancer? Because we can. We ended cancer as we know it." pic.twitter.com/RI5JqxyG3A
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 25, 2023
The White House transcript amended Biden’s remarks, saying he said, “We can end cancer as we know it.”
Social media had a field day mocking Biden’s claim:
Joe Biden: I said I'd cure cancer they looked at me like, why cancer? Because we can. We ended cancer as we know it.
Fact-Check: Joe Biden has not cured cancer pic.twitter.com/SpUFWT5PJ3
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) July 25, 2023
It's a sign of how bitter and polarized our politics are that there's so little gratitude toward Biden for having cured cancer or at least ended cancer as we know it.
Some things should transcend partisanship, and a President having cured cancer should be one of them. https://t.co/R0yHsIGIZB
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 25, 2023
JUST IN: President Joe Biden has officially cured cancer according to President Joe Biden.
What an amazing day for people all around the world 🎉
"I said I'd cure cancer they looked at me like, why cancer? Because we can!”
“We ended cancer as we know it.”
Biden will now be… pic.twitter.com/AmNxjcQx6Z
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 25, 2023
Biden also declared on Tuesday, “I don’t know what the difference between breaking your arm and having a mental breakdown is. It’s health. There is no distinction.”
In June 2019, Tuesday, speaking in Ottumwa, Iowa, Biden decided to endorse hyperbole in theatrical fashion, promising his audience that as president he would do something no human had ever done before: cure cancer.
“I’ve worked so hard in my career that I promise you, if I’m elected president you’re gonna see (the) single most important thing that changes America, we’re gonna cure cancer,” he said.
As vice president, Biden supervised the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative and after leaving office, he oversaw the Biden Cancer Initiative.
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As Medical News Today explained in 2018, there are numerous methods that are being tried to combat cancer: chemotherapy; radiotherapy; tumor surgery and hormonal therapy. Newer techniques include immunotherapy (but the difficulty lies in cancer cells fooling the immune system into “ignoring them”); therapeutic viruses (but they are difficult to control); using nanoparticles to target cancer cells, and starving cancer cells of nutrients.
According to the National Cancer Institute, there are over one hundred kinds of cancer: “There are more than 100 types of cancer. Types of cancer are usually named for the organs or tissues where the cancers form. For example, lung cancer starts in cells of the lung, and brain cancer starts in cells of the brain. Cancers also may be described by the type of cell that formed them, such as an epithelial cell or a squamous cell.”
The plethora of cancers imply that dealing with them all likely defies the capacity of a “silver bullet” that can wipe them all out. As Live Science noted, “There are many different causes, ranging from radiation to chemicals to viruses; an individual has varying degrees of control over exposure to cancer-causing agents. Cancer cells, and how they grow, remain unpredictable and in some cases mysterious. Even after seemingly effective treatments, crafty cancer cells are able to hide out in some patients and resurface.”