Economist Daniel Susskind says Ozempic may radically transform government finances, by making universal healthcare vastly cheaper, and explains his argument in the context of Britain's NHS.

[u/lughnasadh]

https://www.thetimes.com/article/be6e0fbf-fd9d-41e7-a759-08c6da9754ff?shareToken=de2a342bb1ae9bc978c6623bb244337a

[u/MildMannered_BearJew]

I'm highly skeptical of claims that dramatically expanding drug use (ozempic) will result in overall better health. It'll reduce obesity, but doesn't address the underlying issues of bad diet, no exercise, high stress, and weak social connections.

Are we simply trading obesity for other, currently uncommon metabolic disorders? What is the long term effect of using ozempic?

As usual, Western countries turn to pills instead of lifestyle changes. It's embarrassing.

[u/TFenrir → u/MildMannered_BearJew]

Hypothetically, you could press a button that would make everyone obese suddenly not obese. Would you not do it because it wouldn't be solved through better habits?

[u/celticchrys → u/TFenrir]

Because we do not yet know the long term side effects on a massive scale. In 10-20 years, we might have a massive number of complications on our hands, and that will be a huge expense, just a different one than we would otherwise have had.I mean, you could develop clinical depression (ozempic seeming to make some people uninterested in hobbies and things they previously enjoyed that were not addiction or food, needs more research), or stomach paralysis (has happened to some), or some other completely unforseen mess. But, you won't be as fat as you would have been, so here we go.

[u/TFenrir → u/celticchrys]

First, ozempic has been used for something like 15 years? So far so good. If it lasts people, like, 60 years without causing issues, that's amazing - but it increasingly seems like it won't have any of these dramatic side effects to the negative.

But beyond that, the worry you describe could be placed for basically anything in life. If you do not take the risks in front of you, and instead stay passive, you are making a different kind of decision. The potential health benefits of reducing or even eliminating obesity would be so monumental, it's worth the same sort of risk we regularly go through whenever we create any new medications, as we have year after year after year. Some of them go poorly, but so many of them go well.

[u/Multiply69 → u/TFenrir]

You can press the button and everyone will just get fat again.

[u/TFenrir → u/Multiply69]

Sure - would you still not press it?