Did the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services endorse a purported initiative from controversial wellness coach Barbara O'Neill called "US Without Diabetes," as a social-media post claims? No, that's not true: The Department of Health and Human Services has not endorsed the purported initiative. A promotion on Facebook for a dietary supplement used a faked image of a Fox News story to imply that the TV network had interviewed O'Neill about this supposed endorsement -- but there was no endorsement and there was no interview. There is also no evidence that the supplement in the promotion is associated with O'Neill.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the Facebook page Nova Matrix Pulse R on June 17, 2024. A teaser for the post read:
BREAKING NEWS!
Barbara O'Neill's 'US without diabetes' initiative has been officially endorsed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesTake control over your health with this revolutionary program designed to help you reverse insulin resistance, manage blood sugar levels, and achieve a healthy weight for optimal well-being
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Jun 21 15:12:24 2024 UTC)
The post included a link to healthhotspots-usa.com (archived here). The linked website page had a banner designed to look like a MSNBC news page (pictured below), but further down the page was a faked image of a Fox News program featuring Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade. The fabricated chyron on the image, which has never been featured on Fox News, read:
U.S. FORMALLY ENDORSES BARBARA O'NEILL'S 'US WITHOUT DIABETES' INITIATIVE
(Source: healthhotspots-usa.com screenshot taken on Fri Jun 21 17:08:15 2024 UTC)
Using keywords, Lead Stories searched on Google for O'Neill and the three Fox & Friends co-hosts and for the false chyron's claim that the U.S. had endorsed an O'Neill "US Without Diabetes initiative." We found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the post's claim. A search of the hhs.gov website for Barbara O'Neill and for the phrase, "US WITHOUT DIABETES INITIATIVE," both with and without quotes, also yielded no relevant results.
Lead Stories contacted the Department of Health and Human Services and will update this article, as appropriate, if we receive a reply.
The product linked on the healthhotspots-usa.com website is called SweetEase Glyco Support or SweetEase Glyco Optimizer. Lead Stories found no credible connections between O'Neill and this product.
Although healthhotspots-usa.com advertised that SweetEase is a Better Business Bureau-accredited business, Lead Stories found no listing for a supplement business by that name in the Better Business Bureau registry.
At the time this fact check was written, PolitiFact had reviewed the same claim.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims made by and about Barbara O'Neill can be found here.
