An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a Time Magazine cover naming Dr. Rachel Levine as “Woman of the Year.”

Verdict: False

The cover has been fabricated. It originated from a Facebook page that creates satirical content.

Fact Check:

The Senate recently confirmed Levine as assistant health secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services, making her the first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the Senate, according to the Washington Post.

In recent months, she has been the subject of misinformation on social media platforms. This particular Facebook post, which was shared after her confirmation, appears to show Time Magazine naming Levine as “Woman of the Year” on a recent cover. (RELATED: Does This Image Show Rachel Levine With Her Family?)

There is no record of Levine being named “Woman of the Year” by Time Magazine, a review of Time covers available on the magazine’s website shows. Time Magazine covers typically include an issue date in the upper-right corner, which the Facebook image lacks. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were most recently named “Person of the Year” in December 2020.

The handle @theunitedspot in the bottom-right corner of the image indicates the fake Time cover originated from The United Spot, a satirical Facebook page that says “all posts, memes and videos are fictional, fake and created only for comedy” in its “About” section. Nevertheless, some social media users appeared to erroneously believe the cover was real.

“This claim is not accurate, and this is not an authentic TIME cover,” a Time Magazine spokesperson confirmed to Check Your Fact in an email.

Time Magazine switched to consistent use of “Person of Year” in 1999, according to its website. In March 2020, it launched a project called “100 Women of the Year” to spotlight “influential women who were often overshadowed,” according to the magazine. It includes 11 covers for women that had been named “Person of the Year,” as well as 89 new covers. Levine, however, does not appear among those covers.

Check Your Fact previously debunked a viral image falsely claiming to show Levine on the cover of Vanity Fair.