Two alleged magazine proposals with Dr. Rachel Levine, newly appointed U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health, as ‘Woman of the Year’ spread on social media. No picture is authentic.
Examples can be seen here and here
Although both versions are pretty poor digital changes, users seem to fall for it, with comments like “Who are the fools these people are choosing?” and “You cannot make it up (explicitly)! You (explicitly) liberal (expletive) ”
A spokesman for Time magazine confirmed in an email to Reuters that “these two images are not authentic TIME front pages. ‘
Levine, a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine (here), who led Pennsylvania’s response to the coronavirus outbreak as the Commonwealth’s top health official, was named by President Biden as assistant health secretary for the new government, and becomes the first openly transgender official to be confirmed by the Senate (here).
One version visible here and shared more than 4,840 times on Facebook shows Levine on the beach.
The image was digitally altered to place her head on the body of blogger Sarah Sapora (see original image here) and to include a tattoo on her hip.
Another version visible here and here contains a photo of Levine (here) added in a black background.
Levine has in the past (here, here) addressed the mockery and often transphobic misinformation.
Reuters has previously scrapped similar posts, claiming that Levine will appear on the cover of Vanity Fair in March 2021 (here)
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were the magazine “Person of the Year” in 2020, as revealed on December 10 (here). The publication begins with the tradition in 1927. In 2019, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg becomes the youngest individual winner of the award. Since 1994, Time magazine has been announcing “Person of the Year” in December (see all issues here) and expects to do so, according to the spokesperson this year.
VERDICT
Alter. Two covers of Time magazine, with dr. Rachel Levine as ‘Woman of the Year’, is digitally produced and is not authentic.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.