WASHINGTON — When Vice President Joe Biden laid out plans for his major cancer research initiative in January, some public health advocates were alarmed. The plan to work toward a cure was ambitious, but there was virtually no mention of the importance of cancer prevention.
So in phone calls, meetings, and a public letter to Biden, the advocates delivered the vice president’s team a blunt message: Prevention had to be part of any serious effort to wipe out cancer.
By the time the website for Biden’s initiative was launched, it listed vaccines for cancer-causing viruses as a key goal — and said the initiative “seeks to accelerate progress in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.”
We need to keep, “first things first” particualary as it regards health of mind and body. And that means far, far greater attention and education on prevention involving how we live, and what we eat and breath. And the greater us of mass communication of all kinds as to education on living a healthy life from womb to grave, starting with prekindergarten, extending into all places of living, work and retierment.