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

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”.

  • sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al
    2·
    1 month ago

    Yeah, I take umbrage with the verbage. It would be dystopian to force people with a high BMI onto the drugs

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      2·
      1 month ago

      I wouldn’t say dystopian, I’d say possibly problematic. After all they would be healthier if they weren’t overweight.

      However it’s irrelevant because that’s not happening