GB News’ Neil Oliver slammed for peddling ‘turbo cancer’ conspiracy theory

Neil Oliver, the BBC historian turned GB News conspiracy theorist, is once again spreading nonsensical health stories - this time claiming something known as ‘turbo cancer’ exists and vaccine giant Pfizer is buying companies working on treatments for the non-existent condition.

These are the latest outlandish remarks from Oliver after he admitted he didn’t understand the war in Ukraine before proceeding to talk about the war in Ukraine, and proclaimed he’d happily catch Covid-19 “for the sake of freedom”.

He also took aim at Boris Johnson, not long after it was announced he was soon to become a colleague of his.

This time, however, Oliver gave his thoughts on Pfizer’s acquisition of Seagen, a biotechnology company focused on cancer treatments, which was completed last month.

He said: “While young people drop dead and otherwise healthy people of all ages are harvested in hitherto unheard of numbers by heart disease and turbo cancer, our old friend Pfizer has been spending some of its recently acquired massive wealth buying companies that develop drugs to treat heart disease and turbo cancer.

“I don’t know about you, but until just a few months ago, I’d never heard of turbo cancer … Fuel injected, maybe with a bottle of nitrous oxide on the side for the sudden terrifying burst of speed across the line to unexpected death.”

He continued: “[Pfizer CEO Albert] Bourla has been all over the media predicting turbo cancers will affect a third of the world in the years ahead, even declaring that entire families will be affected.”

And so, to immediately fact-check what Oliver has said: Bourla did not say ‘turbo cancers’ will affect a third of the world’s population – obviously.

When commenting on his company’s takeover of Seagen, Bourla had remarked: “Cancer remains a leading cause of death, and one in three people in the US will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime.”

No mention of ‘turbo cancer’, and the US isn’t the whole world. It’s a bit embarrassing we have to point this out to a man who once presented a BBC documentary series called Coast.

As for the existence of a so-called “turbo cancer”, Reuterspublished a fact-check back in December 2022 citing five medical experts who all rubbished the claim that the coronavirus vaccine causes “turbo cancer”.

Dr Gigi Gronvall, an immunology expert and senior scholar at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, is quoted as saying “there is zero basis for any of the things being claimed here” and that it is “completely made up and none of it is true”.

The Reuters fact-check concludes by pointing out that “a drop in screenings during the pandemic may have led to a rise in cancers first detected at their later stages”.

As such, Oliver peddling conspiratorial nonsense has been condemned by people on social media, with some calling on the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom to take action:

GB News was previously found in breach by Ofcom in relation to its ‘Don’t Kill Cash’ campaign (due impartiality), an interview with the chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt carried out by Tory MP couple Esther McVey and Philip Davies (impartiality again), Martin Daubney discussing immigration policy (you guessed it, impartiality again) and two separate programmes featuring Mark Steyn commenting on Covid-19 (harm and offence).

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