Multiple mainstream media outlets have been doing segments on Ozempic, not only touting the injectable diabetes drug’s weight loss benefits but also pointing to other supposed benefits, like a clip on NBC that claimed it can reduce the risk of cancer.
What they’re not talking about nearly as much are the scary side effects of these so-called weight loss “miracles,” but that shouldn’t be surprising when you consider how heavily pharmaceutical companies advertise in the mainstream media. No one working for these outlets would want to write anything that risks upsetting the companies helping pay their salary.
Dr. Guy Hatchard, a natural medicine advocate with a Ph.D. in Psychology, recently called out the corporate media for this practice, focusing on a lead article in The New Zealand Herald entitled “Wellington company director Finlay Thompson loses 30kg taking Ozempic, wants medication funded.”
Written by a young journalist, Ethan Manera, it discusses how the company director in question shed 66 pounds while participating in a U.S.-based trial of the drug and receiving it for free. As the trial period comes to a close, he is asking the government to fund the drug for himself and others who need to lose weight. In Thompson’s case, he simply can’t control his eating and has failed at multiple other attempts to lose weight.
However, as the article pushes the government to pay for the medication, it fails to mention the drug’s price: $1,550 for a one-month supply. When you consider the fact that a 2021 survey found that a third of New Zealand adults were overweight, the math is clear: If the country’s government funded Ozempic for all 1.35 million people who need it, it would cost them nearly their entire national health budget of $25 billion.
Media ignoring the dangers of weight loss drugs
Another important aspect of the drug the article overlooks is its dangers. Several studies have linked it to gastrointestinal disturbances and gall stones. Many people have experienced gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis, as the drug slows down the emptying of the stomach, helping patients feel full. Intestinal blockage, bowel obstruction and other problems have also been reported.
Even more alarmingly, some recent findings point to a long-term risk of deadly cancers like pancreatic and thyroid cancer, as well as diabetic retinopathy, which can lead to blindness.
The piece also failed to mention how nine out of ten people who take drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy stop early because of their negative effects, nor did it go into how people have reported losing their sense of fun and experiencing depression and thoughts of suicide while taking these medications. This is something that certainly won’t be helped by going off the drug as many people report the weight returns as soon as they stop using it.
Drug makers stand to make a lot of money on these injections, and the number of obese people in the world gives them a huge customer base that could help them see the kind of profits they earned the last time they used the media to pull the wool over people’s eyes, during the pandemic. This means we’re going to see a lot more one-sided articles that tout the drug’s dramatic weight loss effects while ignoring safer and equally effective approaches that no one profits from, setting overweight people up for even more health problems.
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