THE UK’s Health Secretary has denied his plans to give weight-loss jabs to unemployed people would result in a “dystopian future”.
Speaking on the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show, Wes Streeting acknowledged that weight-loss drugs would not be the only answer to tackling obesity after he suggested this week they could have a “monumental impact” on getting people into work.
Public health expert Dr Simon Williams told this week’s Sunday National that the plans “will not make a dent in the overall problem”.
Streeting had said in an article for The Telegraph that “widening waistbands” were placing a burden on the NHS and that drugs could be administered to help get people back into employment.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: “Look I don’t think that the answer to obesity is simply weight-loss jabs but there is a lot of evidence to suggest already, and I’m really excited about the trial we’ll be doing with Lilly.”
The UK Government announced a £279 million investment from Lilly, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, with the deal expected to include trials of weight loss jabs and the impact these can have on unemployment.
"I'm not interested in some dystopian future where I... involuntarily jab unemployed people who are overweight" Health Secretary Wes Streeting says "the answer to obesity isn't simply weight-loss drugs" but they "could be game-changing"#BBCLauraK https://t.co/2tvra1zpxX pic.twitter.com/5YBLghenFH
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 20, 2024
The Health Secretary continued: “There’s a lot of evidence already that these jabs combined with changes to diet and exercise can help people to reduce their weight but also prevent cardiovascular disease and also diabetes which is game changing.
“And for a lot of people, particularly people who are morbidly obese, they will tell you through bitter experience even when they’ve tried to do the right thing they’ve found the challenge insurmountable.
“And these jabs can be a gamechanger on that.”
However, Streeting (above) conceded he did not want to create a “dependency culture” and added: “I’m also not interested in some dystopian future where I wander around involuntarily jabbing unemployed people who are overweight.
“That is not the agenda. Actually I think we’ve got an opposite challenge. I think demand at the moment, it will be greater than what we’re able to meet.”
