Weight-loss jabs alone are ‘the wrong answer’ to obesity crisis, Chris Whitty says
Weight-loss vaccines alone are not enough to solve Britain’s worsening obesity crisis, the government’s chief medical adviser has said.
Professor Chris Whitty criticized the reliance on GLP-1 drugs and suggested stopping junk food advertising and making foods healthier instead.
England’s chief medical officer told an Association of Medical Journalists conference on Thursday evening that “relying solely on drugs seems to me to be the wrong answer” to tackling obesity.
This contrasts with comments from health secretary Wes Streeting, who last week praised the weight-loss pills as a “true game changer” for those who need them.
An estimated 1.6 million adults in England, Wales and Scotland used drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy to help lose weight between early 2024 and early 2025, according to a study by UCL.
Mr Whitty said: “Does anyone here believe that the right answer is to let obesity increase because obesogenic foods are marketed quite aggressively to children and then stick them on GLP-1 agonists at 18? I think it’s shocking if that’s where we’ve come.”
Mr Whitty acknowledged GLP-1s were “transformative” for people who need them, but stressed that if you stop taking them the weight will come back. He also noted that a small number of people react very badly to them, and a large number of people have unpleasant side effects.
According to the British Heart Foundation, weight loss injections can cause digestive problems, diarrhoea, constipation and stomach pain in one in 10 people. The jabs are also linked to a higher risk of developing inflammation of the pancreas (acute pancreatitis), which affects one in 100 people taking the drug.
Stating that it is common to gain weight again after quitting drugs, Whitty explained that this may also cause some older people to have less muscle mass and more fat than before they started using drugs.
He concluded: “If a large proportion of the population is in areas of deprivation rather than areas of prosperity, I think that is a social failure. Relying solely on drugs seems to me the wrong answer.”
The UK has one of the worst obesity rates in Europe, according to a global report by the World Obesity Federation. The report predicts that 220 million children worldwide will be obese by 2040 if serious measures are not taken.
Mr Whitty highlighted his concerns and described obesity as a major health problem heading in the wrong direction. Noting the widening gap in childhood obesity rates between poor and affluent areas, he noted that in the poorest communities, nearly 30 percent of 10-year-old children are already overweight or obese. “This sets them up for failure for a lifetime,” he said.
He added that France is a country that has managed to keep obesity rates mostly stable since 1990, and argued that the difference lies in the food environment and the way food types are marketed to children.
The chief medical adviser has encouraged food companies to put less sugar and fat in their products rather than relying on weight-loss shots.
He also accused the food industries of using “very powerful lobbyists” in the media to dissuade ministers from taking bold action and portraying beneficial policies as a “nanny state” even when voters want action.
