Weight loss jabs for unemployed not dystopian, says Wes Streeting - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk
The government is looking into whether weight-loss drugs can help get more people back to work.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18923980

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has dismissed suggestions that plans to provide weight loss jabs to unemployed people with obesity are “dystopian”.

The UK government is partnering with pharmaceutical giant Lilly who are running a five-year trial in Greater Manchester to test if the weight-loss drug Mounjaro can help get more people back to work and prevent obesity-related diseases to ease the strain on the NHS in England.

The announcement prompted a backlash, with accusations that the government was stigmatising unemployed individuals and reducing people to their economic value.

Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Streeting said the jabs were part of a broader healthcare plan, adding that he was “not interested in some dystopian future where I involuntarily jab unemployed people who are overweight”.

  • Eximius@lemmy.world
    1520·
    1 month ago

    ITT: Lots of Americans getting insulted by the fact that obesity brings health problems, and the fact that being obese is a self-destructive choice.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
      294·
      1 month ago

      Maybe sometimes.

      Obesity is only a choice if mental health issues are a choice too.

      ITT : people who think you can “man up” your way through compulsion.

    • 474D@lemmy.world
      9·
      1 month ago

      Hey don’t narrow it to just Americans, we’re not even the fattest country anymore I don’t think

      • doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        5·
        1 month ago

        Wow, looked it up just now; apparently the US is only #15, after a bunch of Pacific islands, and a couple others

    • Glytch@lemmy.world
      8·
      1 month ago

      Where are the insulted Americans? I see only a few comments and no one seems offended to me.

      Is this a fediverse thing where I’m not seeing all the comments or are you just making shit up to be self righteous about?

      I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that it’s the second one.

    • Letstakealook@lemm.ee
      38·
      1 month ago

      Look at that! Eurotrash making up shit to hate on Americans about. Literally the worst people in all of human history but still manage to be smug about it, lmao.