Sir Chris Witty blasts obese Britain’s fat jab culture as ‘socially unacceptable’
The country’s most senior doctor has warned that weight-loss vaccines are not the solution to Britain’s obesity crisis; appears to be breaking ranks with the government’s push to expand access to blockbuster injections.
England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said relying on drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy to tackle rising obesity rates would amount to a ‘societal failure’ and warned there was still ‘a lot we don’t know’ about the long-term effects of the treatments.
He said: ‘These are very good drugs but there is a lot we don’t know about GLP-1s. A very small number of people react very badly to them, and a large number of people experience unpleasant side effects.
‘These are transformative for the people who need them, and some people will always need them, but it should be a small minority. If there is a high percentage of people then I think it is a social failure.
‘Relying on these drugs seems to me to be the wrong answer.’
His comments appear to be at odds with the Government’s increasingly enthusiastic embrace of drugs.
Just last week, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who described the drugs as a ‘game changer’, said he would pay GPs extra money to introduce slimming injections more quickly.
Meanwhile, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, former medical director of NHS England, has predicted that they could one day be as widely prescribed as statins, the most widely used drugs in England.
England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said relying on drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy to tackle rising obesity rates would amount to a “societal failure”
Speaking in London on Thursday night, Professor Whitty said: ‘I’m really worried about obesity.
‘It causes many diseases, including several cancers, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
‘It is much better to ensure that obesity does not occur in the first place than to allow obesity rates to rise in children and young adults and then stick them on GLP-1 agonists at 18.’
Two in three adults in the UK are overweight and 30 per cent of these are obese.
It is estimated that 1.6 million people tried weight loss drugs in the country last year.
Professor Whitty also said children were being targeted with ‘highly aggressive marketing’ of junk food, leading to obesity and leaving the health service ‘forced to pick up the pieces for the rest of the child’s life’.
He said the food on high streets in places like Wigan or Blackpool was ‘completely different’ to equivalent towns in France and that it was not the fault of the people who lived there that there was ‘wall to wall’ junk food on offer.
‘This is a social choice and I think it’s a choice we need to take really, really seriously.’
