Facebook posts – Claim Fox News commentator Kelly Powers died from cancer caused by COVID-19 vaccines is unfounded

Fox News commentator Dr. Kelly Powers died Dec. 1 at age 45 from brain cancer, prompting unfounded online claims that COVID-19 vaccines caused her cancer.

A Dec. 5 Facebook post shared a headline that read, “Fully vaccinated Fox News doctor Kelly Powers, who survived on-air heart attack, dies from turbo cancer.”

The post’s caption read, “We tried to warn people since 2020. There was never a term called (turbo) cancer until these bio weapons were used.”

(Screenshot from Facebook)

Another Facebook post shared the same headline. These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

The headline comes from a Dec. 4 article published by The People’s Voice, a website known for spreading misinformation. We’ve repeatedly fact-checked the site’s false headlines, and the byline on this article, Baxter Dmitry, is often on misinformation sites.

The article does not provide evidence to support the claim. The article described Powers’ appearances on Fox News and her health complications.

Powers’ mother, Joan Powers, told The New York Times on Dec. 4 that her daughter’s cause of death was brain cancer. Powers, who was a podiatric surgeon, was diagnosed in July 2020 with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.

The first COVID-19 vaccines were not publicly available in the U.S. until December 2020, months after Powers’ diagnosis.

The term “turbo cancer” was popularized by antivaccine activists, who’ve repeatedly claimed — contrary to available evidence — that COVID-19 vaccines cause unusually aggressive, fast-growing cancer.

Powers had a yearslong history of health problems. In the January issue of Preferred Health magazine, Powers described how in 2018 she started to have chest pain and shortness of breath.

“I went into heart failure while doing a report on Fox Business — live — on heart health and talking about the subtle signs that women often miss,” Powers told the magazine. “I was actually diagnosed with heart disease by accident when my gallbladder was failing and I had to have it removed.”

Powers said when she went to the hospital to have gallbladder surgery, doctors examined her heart and discovered she had pericardial effusion, or fluid around her heart. She said in a May 2020 Fox News interview that she had emergency surgery to address this.

Then, on July 11, 2020, Powers posted on Instagram that she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In the years following, Powers had three brain surgeries and multiple rounds of radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, her family wrote on a GoFundMe page for her treatment. But in February, Powers posted on Instagram that her cancer had returned and another mass was found in her brain.

We found no credible news reports attributing Powers’ cancer diagnosis or death to the COVID-19 vaccine.

We rate the claim that Powers died from “turbo cancer” caused by COVID-19 vaccines False.