Muzha Azariah Kucha
Following a plane crash incident outside the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo that killed 62 people, an X user @CatiaKyen tweeted a picture of the crash site with the caption, “So that plane that crashed in Brazil last week had 8 cancer doctors who found evidence that the MRNA was linked to turbo cancer? And non of them survived.”
Although this tweet has since been deleted by the X user, it is imperative to fact-check the claims as it went viral with several retweets and quote tweets before it was deleted.
VERIFICATION
Were there doctors aboard the ill-fated plane?
The Daily Mail reported that six leading oncologists and two resident medics, in their final year of training, were on their way from their home city of Cascavel to a cancer conference in Sao Paulo when the twin-engine turboprop ATR 72-500 VoePass Airline flight crashed into a gated community killing all on board on August 9. This was corroborated by the Associated Press and The Independent.
The identities of the doctors began to emerge as news spread. Also, the State University of Western Paraná (Unioeste) released a statement identifying the victims who are linked to Unioeste and are doctors: Professor Edilson Hobold; Professor Deonir Secco; Professor Raquel Ribeiro Moreira; retired Professor José Roberto Leonel Ferreira; graduate of medicine, Sarah Sella Langer; and Mariana Comiran Belim; also a graduate of medicine.
Meanwhile, Daily Mail also reported that veterinary medicine professor, Silvia Osaki and oncology resident doctor, Arianne Albuquerque Estevan Risso were also in the crash.
Are these deceased doctors linked to turbo cancer research and the mRNA?
In the wake of the tragedy, Oncology News Central stated that AstraZeneca confirmed that two of the doctors in the crash had planned to attend an event promoted by the pharmaceutical company. The conference, ONConexoes AZ on Ovarian Cancer, was set to take place in Curitiba, which is an hour flight from São Paulo, where they were attending the conference.
The statement from Unioste revealed the current post of the deceased doctors:
“Professor Edilson was a professor of Physical Education at the Marechal Cândido Rondon Campus of Unioeste, and holds a master’s degree in Physical Education from the Federal University of Santa Catarina – UFSC (2003) and a PhD in Physical Education from the State University of Campinas – UNICAMP (2013). He was the director of the Center for Human Sciences, Education and Letters and had extensive experience in the area, with an emphasis on Sports Training and Sports Pedagogy.”
“Deonir Secco, a professor in the Agricultural Engineering course at the Cascavel Campus, had a degree in Agronomy and a PhD in the same area from the Federal University of Santa Maria. At Unioeste, the professor worked in the undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Energy Engineering in Agriculture since 2010, being one of its creators and coordinator from 2010 to 2012. He also coordinated the Soil Physics Laboratory (LAFIS) and was the leader of the research group: Soil management for the sustainability of agricultural crops.”
“Former Unioeste student and professor Raquel Ribeiro Moreira graduated from the Letters course at the Cascavel campus in 1999. She was currently an accredited teacher in the University’s Postgraduate Program in Letters. She had experience in the area of Letters, with an emphasis on Letters, working mainly on the following topics: discourse analysis, adolescents in situations of social risk, textbooks, formal and professional education, and text production.”
“Professor José Roberto Leonel Ferreira, retired in May 2024 from Huop where he’s been teaching and doing medical residency since 2000, and is also the owner of the Dr. Leonel Ferreira Imaging Center in Cascavel and a Radiologist at the Hospital Policlínica Cascavel since 1989. He participated in the research groups on Renal Lithiasis at Unioeste and Dosimetry in ionizing radiation at the Federal Technological University of Paraná.”
“Paediatric physician Sarah Sella Langer also worked at the Huop Emergency Room. The physician also participated in research projects on sublingual immunotherapy in atopic dermatitis and genetics of atopic dermatitis in Brazilian patients. She graduated in Medicine from Unioeste in 2012.”
“Former academic Mariana Comiran Belim, is an intensive care physician in the Adult ICU at the Western Paraná University Hospital (HUOP). She graduated from the Medicine course at the Cascavel campus in 2019. Belim completed her residency in Clinical Medicine at the Maringá Regional University Hospital (HURM) in 2022. At the time, she was also a resident physician in Clinical Oncology at the Western Paraná Union for Studies and Fight against Cancer (UOPECCAN).”
Dr. Silvia Cristina Osaki is a professor at the Federal University of Paraná ( UFPR). She graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the State University of Londrina (UEL) in 1996, Silvia Osaki has been a professor at UFPR since 2009. She taught courses in Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences, focusing on Zoonoses, Veterinary Epidemiology, Public Health and Health Education, in the Palotina sector. In addition, she was the coordinator of the Veterinary Medicine course from 2015 to 2018 and of the Postgraduate Program in Animal Science (PPGCA) from 2021 to 2023.
Meanwhile, Dr. Risso was an oncology resident at the Uopeccan Cancer Hospital in Cascavel She completed her medical studies at the Universidade Brasil, in Fernandópolis in 2015 and went on to work in the Family Health program at the UBS in Brasilândia until mid-2020.
According to their profiles, only two doctors, Belim and Risso, had specialties related to cancer.
More importantly, turbo cancer is an anti-vaccination conspiracy theory alleging that people vaccinated against COVID-19, especially with mRNA vaccines, are suffering from a high incidence of fast-developing cancers.
CONCLUSION
The claim that the deceased doctors found evidence that the mRNA was linked to turbo cancer is FALSE as only two deceased doctors are linked to cancer research and the purported ‘Turbo Cancer’ is a debunked myth linked to anti-vaxxers.
