The Biden Cancer Initiative went nowhere. Oh wait, that’s not entirely true. The funds did indeed go somewhere, but not one dime went for the foundation’s intended purpose.

“The Biden Cancer Initiative will develop and drive implementation of solutions to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, research and care, and to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes. Through the Biden Cancer Initiative, Vice President and Dr. Biden strengthen their commitment to inject a sense of urgency into our cancer research and care systems and reimagine how the government, academia, non-profits and the private sector can better organize their resources and systems to collaborate to take on cancer, with the patient as the focus. The Initiative will be a major convening force in driving new actions and collaborations toward ending cancer as we know it.”

Sounds wonderful right? All of this stemmed from the White House Cancer Moonshot push that Obama and Biden set up in 2016. 

So this initiative was supposed to help get rid of the red tape and eliminate stove piping of information and research. It was supposed to reorganize and therefore ensure better outcomes on cancer research and care systems. The initiative received a significant number of donations to get started, including funds from the Biden Foundation. 

Here’s the problem with the Biden Cancer Initiative and the Biden Foundation. Both had the intended and stated purpose of providing funding for entities that fit within the mission parameters. To be a verified and reputable foundation, applications for grants should be received and the board should review and meet to determine which entities will receive a grant and for how much. 

I know this, because I have worked with a foundation for several years now. If your stated purpose is to help drive new actions and collaborations for cancer research and patients, then one would think that the Initiative or the Biden Foundation itself would’ve awarded grants to aid in moving those processes forward. 

Tax filings reveal Biden cancer charity spent millions on salaries, zero on research https://t.co/GHTwotpmXW pic.twitter.com/lkq35jcBQy

— New York Post (@nypost) November 14, 2020

Exactly how much was spent on salaries?? 

“The charity took in $4,809,619 in contributions in fiscal years 2017 and 2018, and spent $3,070,301 on payroll in those two years. The group’s president, Gregory Simon, raked in $429,850 in fiscal 2018 (July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019), according to the charity’s most recent federal tax filings.

Simon, a former Pfizer executive and longtime health care lobbyist who headed up the White Houses’s cancer task force in the Obama administration, saw his salary nearly double from the $224,539 he made in fiscal 2017, tax filings show.

Danielle Carnival, former chief of staff for Obama’s cancer initiative, the Cancer Moonshot Task Force, who took home $258,207 in 2018.”

Someone else benefitted from the largess of the Biden Cancer Initiative. Joe Biden’s son-in-law, Dr. Howard Krein.

Krein and his brother Steve, are joined at the hip with a company called StartUp Health. Steve scored meetings with the Obama Administration just as the Biden Cancer Initiative and Moonshot were getting under way. Startup Health also scored some very big donations from some interesting sources. 

“StartUp Health raised $500,000 in 2012; by 2018, one fund had raised $31 million. And like all things Biden, cash is flowing from international sources.

“The influence concerns posed by the firm are compounded by its foreign ties,” Politico’s Ben Schreckinger wrote in an overlooked article on October 13. “One StartUp Health fund raised $31 million from investors, including . . . the Chinese insurer Ping An. The firm’s website also lists the Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent as a ‘co-investor’ in its cancer moonshot initiative.””

But again, did the Biden Cancer Initiative actually DO anything? No. Last year Donald Trump Jr blasted the Biden Foundation, and CNN rushed to fact check him on it. Well, now we see that CNN and others were doing their best to hide yet another example of grift from Biden and company. 

The Biden Cancer Initiative was supposed to aid in getting rid of cancer research bottlenecks and assist in getting more resources for cancer patients. Instead the initiative went nowhere. 

Sure does instill a great deal of confidence in how a Biden Administration will handle the Covid-19 response doesn’t it?

Feature Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, cropped and modified