Is this going to open a floodgate - weight loss jabs for unemployed

I’d like to congratulate @loveydoveyloon - with excellent support from @MillyMollyMandHey @TopshopCropTop and others - for creating a thread to combine hatred and disgust for both the obese and the long term unemployed.

• There is no shortage of U.K. diabetes treatment.
• Obesity causes incalculable health costs across the West and anything that can help with that is a good thing.
• Reasons of obesity are societal, not individual.
• If you don’t think you should have to pay for your (or your child’s) healthcare because you smoked, drank, had a child with an inherited health issue you had yourself, had an accident playing a sport, moved to a home near traffic, ate a takeaway without ensuring a 5 star hygiene rating before ordering or any other risk-associated action, neither should overweight people.

I suspect this quote is relevant again here. It's from Dr Louis J Aronne talking about the massive health breakthrough these jabs are and what they could mean for many, many illnesses that have obesity as a cause or a symptom.

“I’ve been doing this for 35 years, I did the first study looking for anti-obesity medications in 1989, more than 60 trials of obesity treatments in my career and it’s pretty clear that these are a breakthrough. And, this is the beginning of the breakthrough, this is not the end, this is just the beginning So, the breakthrough is not only the level of efficacy which it’s clear people find is terrific and enjoyable and changes their lives but also the tolerability of these medications.

So, we’ve had medicines that are not quite as effective but they are effective. The problem was in many cases the side effect profile and the risk associated with those medications. But now we have things that are not only effective but easy to use – one shot per week is pretty well tolerated – and I think that this is a pivoting point in the treatment of chronic, metabolic disease. That people are choosing to treat their obesity which is the cause of their diabetes, their hypertension, their high cholesterol, their sleep apnoea, their knee arthritis and the list goes on and on.

And lecturing these days I have a slide I made where I characterise treating obesity as the superman of treating metabolic disease. Literally 200 illnesses can occur as a result of increased body weight, and treating obesity makes them all better to a certain extend. It may not cure them all; blood pressure may stay up, cholesterol may not go down, all of those things can occur but there is no treatment for any of the others that treats something else. But by treating obesity, you get them all. It may not go away but it tends to get better. So I see we’re going to see people choosing to treat their weight rather than wait until they develop all these complications.”

It all sounds a bit Orwellian, giving people drugs to make them more productive. On that basis, it's a no from me.

Sensationalist news complete with sad face picture. Do you know that there are different injections or are they all the same to you seeing as you linked this one talking about Wegovy? Not surprising because anyone who makes the sort of claims you do are usually talking about Wegovy from back in the day and current unsubstantiated rumour.

Ok. At least that’s a recognition that the Guardian is as bad as the Telegraph!

Oh bugger off I don’t hate anybody. I just don’t enjoy the idea of the state interfering with short term medical solutions for obesity without addressing any of the reasons why people are obese.

Yes, the whole issue is complex and nuanced. A friend gained a massive amount of weight whilst waiting for a joint replacement op on the NHS. The joint wear was caused by decades of hard physical labour.

This has caused her other health problems, including depression. Even if she lost the weight gained, she would still be in too much pain and her range of movement would still be too restricted for her to do the physical outdoor job that she is trained to do. It’s crap. The weight loss injections may be transformative for some people, but for a lot of cases like my friend, we need to bite the bullet and find the NHS properly.

Fund

The reason for someone being overweight/obese is because they eat too much

The medication helps them eat less

That is the cause of their obesity.

It may not be a short term medical solution either, some people may need to be on them for life for weight management. And thats also ok

It's not so much they they are out of work directly due to obesity but more from the illnesses and disabilities that result eg arthritis & joint problems & chronic pain, heart problems, cancer, diabetes etc

There was someone one the news yesterday who was 25 stone. He had been told the wait time for the drug was 2 years. He said he hadnt paid his taxes to be told he wasnt eligble!

How did he get to 25 stone which is a huge weight? It will also I suspect give the green light to some eating what they like an then expecting the NHS to give them a jab to lose their weight.

Also, I have recently come back from the Far East and Japan. I saw much less overweight people there. What is so different about the UK (and the US). Is it literally cheap fast food?

It is cheap. Just go into any store, and look at the ready meals, and how cheap they are, plus all anyone has to do, is bung it in the oven, so it saves time as well. Biscuits, crisps, and chocolate are cheap. Frozen chips, £1, for a huge bag. Ready made supermarket pizza, I could go on forever!

Probably jealousy tbh.

But everyone else on here says that’s not the cause. They’re all saying the cause is societal and if it’s societal then handing out weight loss injections like sweeties at a kids party isn’t going to fix the problem.

Oh don't be so goady.

*When I speak to former government ministers, they do not envy the challenges facing us, or the health service, today.
But they envy the opportunity my Cabinet colleagues and I have to harness the rapid advances in science and technology to improve the lives of the British people.
Take obesity. As a country, we’re eating more, eating less healthily and exercising less. The costs to the individual are clear – a less healthy and shorter life.
Our widening waistbands are also placing significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11 billion a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy. Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.
For years, governments have ducked the serious, long-term policy decisions required to tackle its debilitating effects. Fears of being labelled “nanny state”have meant nothing has been done and the problem has only got worse.
As with most of the issues we inherited, this Government recognises that we can only do so much. It will require working in partnership with business, civil society, and all of us as citizens to make real progress – that’s what Sir Keir Starmer’s mission-driven government is about.
And we are calling on some of the world’s leading scientific minds and research institutions to help us succeed.
Today, we are announcing a £279 million investment from the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, Lilly, in a collaboration that includes exploring new ways of delivering health and care services to people living with obesity, and a five-year real-world study of a cutting-edge obesity treatment.
It is a huge step in ensuring the UK is as attractive a destination for the world’s brightest minds as it is for private investment.
This helps cement the UK’s position as a world leader in next generation medicines, and it’s just the beginning. The irony for the free marketeers on the Right, who bemoan the NHS’s single-payer model, is that it makes it uniquely well-placed as a partner for the pharmaceutical sector.
The reforms this Government will put in place will open the NHS up to work much more closely with life sciences, to develop new, more effective treatments, and put NHS patients at the front of the queue.
The long-term benefits of these drugs could be monumental in our approach to tackling obesity. For many people, these weight-loss jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work, and ease the demands on our NHS.
But along with the rights to access these new drugs, there must remain a responsibility on us all to take healthy living more seriously.
The NHS can’t be expected to always pick up the tab for unhealthy lifestyles. That’s why this Government is already taking action to give children a healthy start to life by banning junk food adverts targeted at kids. We’re also reforming the NHS so it catches problems earlier and prevents them from worsening.
Today’s investment should be seen as a signal around the world of this Government’s determination to make Britain a powerhouse for life sciences and medical technology. By combining the care of the NHS and the ingenuity of the world’s leading scientific minds, we can transform the health and wealth of our nation.

This is what Streeting actually wrote. Notably it doesn’t say we are giving weightless injections to unemployed people to get them back to work.

Fruit/veg/lean protein etc etc, is more expensive per calorie.

When people talk about cheap food, this is what is missed. Of course a bag of carrots is cheaper than a ready meal (mostly) but you cant get a full meal out of that bag of carrots and neither can you get enough calorific intake

And even fat people still need some calories, they are allowed to still eat

I'd rather the NHS spend money on weight loss jobs for ALL obese patients instead of flogging a "free" 12 week course on Slimming World (like my Trust does...)

Well true but you could say this about many things. Alcohol and the nhs dealing with the accidents, police time and resources dealing with violent thugs needing to sleep it off; Drug addiction and help from the state to stop including the mental health issues the drugs cause and the state having to deal with it all; smoking and nicotine patches, etc; dangerous adventures like mountain climbing that they then need to be saved from because they put themselves in danger, etc.

Which would you approve - only the ones you like/indulge in/agree with?

Yes, I have said already, we have a socially acceptable environment where overeating is ok

Some people dont overeat, they have the ability to feel full up or switched off or dont want any more

It is no coincidence that around the world, societies with different food environments have different levels of obesity.

The jabs help people eat less. Its not either or.

JABS, not jobs 🙄

This.

Having had a run in with SW when I was about 16 I wouldn't go near them ever again. They did far, far more harm to me at that age than help.

It means people will stop trying to eat healthy and exercise as they’ll just get a weight loss jab. There will be side affects to the drugs and other issues with the heart, but at least we will all be slim and “able”

Ease is a different matter. If you want to berate people for being lazy, or having uncultured palates, then say so.

Are you seriously saying that a ready meal is cheaper than making sausage, mash and peas?

But why are they eating too much? It can often be a sign of depression. Surely that needs to also be addressed? Sounds great in theory but on an individual basis I think it’s more than just giving people a magic weight loss pill.