Fox News reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “formally endorses Barbara O’Neill’s ‘US without diabetes’ initiative.”

The U.S. government hasn’t aligned with a former naturopath banned from practicing in Australia, but recent Facebook posts could lead users to believe otherwise. 

An image of what looks like a Fox News broadcast features a picture of Barbara O’Neill, a former naturopath who promotes alternative medicine, and a chyron that says: “U.S. formally endorses Barbara O’Neill’s ‘US without diabetes’ initiative.”

“BREAKING NEWS!” a June 11 Facebook post sharing the image said. “Barbara O’Neill’s ‘US without diabetes’ initiative has been officially endorsed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.” 

This post and another identical post 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 and Instagram.)

The Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the post, but a Fox News spokesperson said the image of the supposed broadcast was doctored. 

Searching Fox’s website, we found no evidence the network has ever reported on O’Neill, who in 2019 was banned for life from providing health care in Australia. We also found nothing about O’ Neill on the Department of Health and Human Services’ site. 

Looking more broadly online for news coverage to corroborate this claim, we found no credible reporting that the United States has endorsed a diabetes plan from O’Neill.

We rate this post False.