Fact check: Johnston County billboard slams Cooper over 'Type 1 diabetes'
A billboard on U.S. Highway 301 in Johnston County says "Gov Roy Cooper does not consider Type 1 diabetes an under lying health issue! Think about that!" PolitiFact investigates the claim, and how it might relate to the COVID vaccine rollout.
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\A billboard in Johnston County suggests North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is shortchanging people with type 1 diabetes.
A WRAL viewer emailed a photo of the billboard on U.S. Highway 301 to PolitiFact. It says:
“Gov Roy Cooper does not consider Type 1 diabetes an under lying health issue! Think about that!”
The billboard does not show who paid for it. Warren Stancil, the president of the billboard company, InterState Outdoor Inc., said he doesn’t know the buyer’s identity.
“This was an anonymous person who bought the ad space. All I know is what’s in the message,” Stancil said in an email. The ad went up around Jan. 22, he said.
Given the timing of the message in the midst of a vaccine rollout, we’re assuming for the purposes of this check that the messenger is likely referring to where diabetics fall in North Carolina’s inoculation schedule.
To date, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not consider both types of diabetes to carry the same level of risk for COVID-19 complications. In North Carolina, meanwhile, the health department has grouped Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes together and people with either condition qualify for covid vaccines in Group 4, ahead of the general population.
Type 1 diabetes and COVID-19
Still, JDRF spokeswoman Cynthia Rice said that, as a result of the CDC’s recommendations, “many states” haven’t prioritized people with Type 1 diabetes. So the American Diabetes Association has been contacting governors and state agencies across the country, spokeswoman Daisy Diaz told PolitiFact.
Type 1 diabetes and North Carolina
Let’s say someone has diabetes but isn’t over age 65, doesn’t work in an essential industry and doesn’t meet any other criteria for moving up North Carolina’s vaccine priority list.
Asked about North Carolina’s plan, Rice said: “That is the policy we are seeking around the country, with Type 1 included with other disease that increase risk of severe illness from COVID.”
Possible confusion
While people with both types of diabetes are prioritized in North Carolina, old versions of the health department’s website may have given people the wrong impression.
The page currently lists both types of diabetes as chronic conditions.
That exclusion may be why media outlets such as WTVD, WECT and others have mentioned only Type 2 diabetes when reporting on North Carolina’s rollout.
North Carolina has tried to follow most CDC recommendations, said SarahLewis Peel, a spokeswoman for the health department. However, Peel said, North Carolina has always intended to prioritize all diabetics for vaccines.
Our ruling
The billboard says “Cooper does not consider Type 1 diabetes an (underlying) health issue!”
North Carolina’s vaccine rollout prioritizes people with type 1 diabetes ahead of the general population. So it’s clear that Cooper, to some degree, considers the disease to be an underlying health issue.
We rate this claim False.
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