Had doctors aboard the Brazilian airline flight that crashed in August 2024 vowed to release evidence linking mRNA technology to "turbo cancer", as an article by The People's Voice said? No, that's not true: The People's Voice is a website with a long history of publishing made up news and it provided no sources to back up the part about the vow in the headline. As of now there is also no scientific evidence "turbo cancer" is a real disease. Lead Stories cross-referenced a passenger list published by Voepass airline and found that although it was confirmed several passengers had medical backgrounds, including in cancer research, there is no evidence that any vowed to release evidence linking mRNA vaccines to "turbo cancer."
A version of the claim originated in a post by The People's Voice on August 13, 2024, titled, "Doctors Killed in Plane Crash Vowed To Release Evidence Linking mRNA to Turbo Cancer" (archived here). It opened:
Eight cancer doctors who dedicated their lives to saving others and blowing the whistle on the devastating turbo cancer epidemic sweeping the world have been found dead.
The bodies of six world-leading oncologists and two resident medics were found on Friday in the wreckage of a plane that plunged from the sky in Brazil and exploded in a fireball, killing all 62 people on board.
The doctors were on their way to an international conference in Sao Paolo where they were set to present their findings that mRNA and the COVID-19 vaccines are responsible for the explosion of turbo cancers and autoimmune disease wreaking havoc around the world today.
Below is how the post appeared at the time of this publication:
(Source: The People's Voice screenshot taken Fri Aug 16 08:19:00 2024 UTC)
The People's Voice article provided no information to corroborate its claims, such as details of the supposed "international conference in Sao Paolo" or evidence that the doctors were expected to "present findings" linking mRNA and COVID-19 vaccines to "turbo cancers and autoimmune disease."
Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 was a domestic flight scheduled to take passengers from Cascavel to Guarulhos, Brazil, Lead Stories previously reported. On August 9, 2024, it crashed for reasons still unknown at the time of writing, killing 58 passengers and four crew members, according to a Google-translated page published by the airline (archived here).
Lead Stories traced the backgrounds of known medical professionals aboard Flight 2283
The People's Voice article referred to "six leading oncologists and two resident medics," explicitly naming Leonel Ferreira, Sarah Stella, and Silvia Osaki.
Lead Stories cross-referenced these names with a list of the people killed in the crash (archived here) that Voepass published. Our newsroom also referenced government and institutional news releases, as well a list published (archived here) by Central Globo de Jornalismo's online news portal G1 on August 9, 2024, which included the passengers' former professions.
Brazil's Regional Council of Medicine of Paraná (CRM-PR) published a notice (archived here) on August 9, 2024, that identified four doctors from the Brazilian state of Paraná who were killed in the crash as Arianne Albuquerque Risso. Mariana Comiran Belim, José Roberto Leonel Ferreira and Sarah Sella Langer.
Nine of the passengers were affiliated with the State University of Western Paraná, or Universidad Estadual do Oeste do Parana (UNIOESTE) (archived here) in Brazil, according to university notices (archived here).
As of this publication, it is unknown which traveling medical experts were doing so to attend a conference. Lead Stories contacted the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine (CFM), CRM-PR, and the Secretariat of Communications of the State of São Paulo for comment. We will update this article if a response is received.
[Note all official statements were translated from Portuguese to English using Google Translate.]
Below is what we know about the individuals aboard Voepass Flight 2283 with documented medical backgrounds.
Arianne Albuquerque Risso and Mariana Comiran BelimCaroline Redivo
Risso (archived here) and Belim (archived here) and were resident oncologists at the Cascavel Cancer Hospital (archived here). The Paraná regional medical council noted that Belim, who was affiliated with UNIOESTE, was scheduled to attend a conference in São Paulo.
José Roberto Leonel Ferreira
As Lead Stories previously reported, "Leonel Ferreira" was not on the flight -- it was José Roberto Leonel Ferreira. Ferreira was described by CRM-PR as a radiologist at the Polyclinic Hospital of Cascavel since 1989 and a now-retired professor affiliated with UNIOESTE.
Sarah Sella Langer
CRM-PR also listed Sella Langer as a pediatrician and allergist who worked as a member of the agency's Technical Chamber of Allergy and Immunology at CRM-PR. Sella Langer also worked in the emergency room at UNIOESTE.
Edilson Hobold
According to his ResearchGate profile (archived here), Hobold was a professor of physical education at UNIOESTE, where he focused on sports training and sports pedagogy.
Silvia Cristina Osaki
Osaki was a veterinary scientist, according to her Google Scholar (archived here) and ResearchGate (archived here) profiles, as well as a translated death notice published by her research institution (archived here), Universidade Federal do Paraná.
Ana
UNIOESTE wrote that Redivo was a former student at the university and was working as a nutritionist at the time of her death.
Eliane Andrade Freire
A notice issued by Brazil's Federal Council of Pharmacy (archived here) identified Eliane Andrade Freire as a pharmacist. She held the position of quality management supervisor at the pharmaceutical company Prati-Donaduzzi, which, in an official statement (archived here), clarified that she was traveling to visit her family.
No evidence that "turbo cancer" is real
"Turbo cancer" is an anti-vaccination conspiracy theory that claims people who have received COVID-19 vaccines, especially with mRNA vaccines, are more likely to experience fast-developing cancers.
Lead Stories reported in 2023 that turbo cancer is not a genuine condition. A search for "turbo cancer" (archived here) in the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the world's largest biomedical library (archived here), returns no results.
The People's Voice
The People's Voice is among the most prolific online publishers of fake news. Articles on the site often link to and extensively quote stories from other sites to give an appearance of legitimacy but the main claim in the headline and/or the first paragraph of each article is almost never supported by the sources that are offered. The site routinely makes up quotes from people or misrepresents scientific study results.
It originally started as YourNewsWire in 2014 and rebranded as NewsPunch in 2017. In 2023 it rebranded itself again to The People's Voice. The People's Voice/NewsPunch/YourNewsWire has published numerous fake news articles in the past. Its Facebook page, "The People's Voice", lost its verification checkmark, according to a 2018 report from Media Matters For America.
