Jill Biden tours Palm Beach County health nonprofit, speaks on 'Cancer Moonshot' initiative

Saying cancer cares nothing about political partisanship, first lady Jill Biden lauded the Biden Administration's Cancer Moonshot initiative during a speech Thursday in West Palm Beach.

“It’s not a red or blue issue. It’s an American issue. It’s a global issue,” the first lady said in an appeal for unity on an issue she says impacts all Americans in one form or another. "It will take all of us to end cancer as we know it.”

The Cancer Moonshot's goal is to reduce by 50% the number of annual deaths caused by the feared disease within the next 25 years, Biden told the gathering. It involves providing equal access to diagnostics and treatment as well as funding innovative cures and assistance to patients.

Previously: Jill Biden fires up Women for Biden event in Boca Raton

COVID vaccines: Where to get COVID shots for kids under 5 in Palm Beach County

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"Cancer changes everyone it touches and in some ways it touches us all," Biden said.

Then she added: "We need to fight this disease, not each other."

The first lady's arrival at Palm Beach International Airport was the start of a two-day visit that also will include attending a memorial ceremony todayin Surfside to mark the one-year anniversary of the collapse of a condominium complex.

But her visit had a decidedly partisan backdrop.

Just this week, her husband's administration again sparred with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — this time over vaccinations for children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years. And to underscore deep-seated political divisions in former President Donald Trump's home county, dozens of his supporters lined the first lady's motorcade route.

The first lady did not address the controversy during her tour of FoundCare. The nonprofit said this week it received enough Pfizer doses to immunize 100 kids and expected another shipment of the Moderna vaccines, which could cover another 100 children.

Biden flew to West Palm Beach with Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm as well as U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach; U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Gardens; and U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Delray Beach. They were met on the PBIA tarmac by West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James.

Jill Biden toured FoundCare facility in West Palm Beach

The first lady then traveled by motorcade to FoundCare, a center that offers health care and social services to individuals and families with the support of the Promise Fund of Florida.

There, Biden, along with Palm, met with the nonprofit's leaders as well as nurses and navigators, workers who help and support cancer patients through the ordeal of treatment and finances.

The Promise Fund was founded by Nancy Brinker, a women's health advocate who in 1982 started the Susan G. Komen breast cancer research and advocacy nonprofit. The organization was named after Brinker's sister, who had died of breast cancer two years before at the age of 36.

Four years ago, Brinker, Julie Fisher Cummings and Laurie Silvers created The Promise Fund to fill gaps in the cancer screening and treatment of women, especially women of color. Brinker was present during the tour and later spoke at the Cancer Moonshot event at the West Palm Beach Hilton.

From there, Biden traveled to the Hilton, where she delivered her remarks about the administration's cancer initiative. Palm said the Cancer Moonshot is an effort "to use every lever at our disposal to end cancer as we know it.”

Frankel said the day's events were a way to highlight "collaboration."

Underscoring the first lady's message, Biden was introduced by Liliana Herrera, a navigator who assists cancer patients and survivors.

Herrera herself has survived two bouts with cancer, and told the dozens of people in attendance how her diagnosis was made worse by the financial strain after she lost health insurance coverage following her first bout with cancer.

Ultimately, she said, she ended up living in a warehouse, sleeping on a lawn chair and "wondering in the middle of the night" whether she was going to survive.

Today, she said she is dismayed to see the same financial hardship and inequities befalling cancer patients.

"Health care disparity still exists today," she said.

Herrera then added: "We will help you. we will show you the way. We are fighting for women's lives, and they deserve to be here."

White House, DeSantis feud again over COVID vaccinations for children

The first lady's visit followed sharp, verbal volleying between the Biden administration and DeSantis over orders for COVID-19 vaccines intended for children ages 5 months to 5 years.

Florida was the only U.S. state not to pre-order the vaccines for the youngest recipients, a decision that forced pediatricians and hospitals in the Sunshine State to scramble for doses. The White House later said health-care providers in Florida would be allowed to order the vaccines directly from the federal government.

"We are encouraged that after repeated failures by Gov. DeSantis to order COVID-19 vaccines even after every other state had ordered, the State of Florida is now permitting health care providers to order COVID-19 vaccines for our youngest children," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. "We believe it is critical to allow parents everywhere to have the choice to get their kids vaccinated and have a conversation with their pediatrician or health care provider."

But on Monday, DeSantis doubled down.

"We are not going to have any programs where we're trying to jab 6-month-old babies with mRNA," DeSantis said during a press conference. "We still have not ordered it. We're not going to order it."

That position is at odds with public health authorities, including an expert panel that earlier this month unanimously found Moderna's vaccine safe for children 6 months to 6 years old. But DeSantis has aligned himself with vaccine skeptics, including his chosen state surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo.

Jill Biden was not a stranger to Florida during 2020 presidential campaign

Thursday's visit to West Palm Beach was the first lady's first since the election campaign.

In September of that year, she accompanied then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on a swing through South Florida. In Boca Raton, Jill Biden drew an analogy between healing a "broken family" and unifying a nation as the headliner at a "Women for Biden" campaign event.

She also accompanied her husband during stops in Little Haiti and Little Havana communities in Miami-Dade County before he appeared at a televised town hall at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.

Before that, Jill Biden also held a series of get-out-the-vote teleconferences with volunteers, students and supporters in Wesley Chapel, near Tampa, and Jacksonville as the pandemic curtailed in-person campaign events appearances.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jill Biden in West Palm Beach with cancer initiative, Surfside condo