You may recall, if you consume corporate media at any rate, the recent heavy promotion of the weight loss drug called semaglutide (marketed in the United States under the brand name Wegovy) for obesity.
(The process described here is one of “medicalization,” in which regular health issues like obesity with relatively simple solutions, namely diet and exercise, are “medicalized” in the sense that they are reframed as conditions that require professional medical intervention. I have previously explored elsewhere in the context of “gender transition.”)
The FDA approved the drug semaglutide for weight loss in 2021. (Not coincidentally, it should be noted that the pharmaceutical industry funds 75% of the FDA’s drug division.)
The corporate media (also funded by big pharma in the form of advertising) then fueled the frenzy, branding it a weight loss “game changer.”
And the Public Health™ authorities co-signed the craze, offering their eager endorsements in various publications.
Via Healthline:
Experts say* [emphasis added] that glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) drugs like Ozempic, known generically as semaglutide, can help people with obesity lose weight.
*more of the same “experts say” hustle, used to cloak pseudoscience in authority, that I have previously written about elsewhere.
How did semaglutide, formerly an unremarkable diabetes drug, achieve such rapid popularity and endorsement among the Public Health™ authorities?
Via the Guardian:
During a prime-time breakfast slot on BBC Radio 4 last week, a leading obesity expert sang the praises of a blockbuster new weight-loss treatment.
The appetite-suppressing Wegovy injections were “one of the most powerful pharmaceutical tools” to date for treating obesity, Prof Jason Halford told the nation.
The problem, he said, would be ensuring enough people could get hold of them.
Halford’s comments were broadcast on the Today programme to millions. But what was not disclosed was that, in addition to his academic work at Leeds University, he is president of an obesity organisation largely funded by the manufacturer of the jabs. Between 2019 and 2021, the European Association for the Study of Obesity received more than £3.65m from Novo Nordisk – equivalent to more than three quarters of its total declared income for that period. Halford was also a previous adviser to the Danish drug maker, sitting on a UK advisory board. [emphases added]
Anyone who cares about their health should take any advice dispensed in corporate media by “experts” with an enormous grain of salt. They almost always have vested interests in promoting whatever drug or surgical intervention they are brought on to sing the praises of.
In some cases, such as the above-cited one, the conflict of interest is direct and clear: the Public Health™ scammer’s organization is directly funded by the pharmaceutical corporation whose drug he is shilling. But, in other cases, the conflict of interest is more indirect and opaque and as a result more difficult to suss out.
For instance, let’s take the example of the COVID-19 injections. Even research groups with no direct ties to Moderna or Pfizer are still influenced tangentially if they receive their funding from the NIH, which itself recently received hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks (some might call them bribes) from the industry. So, should an institution pursue research that might expose the dangers or inefficacies of these products, the next time they apply for a grant from the NIH, they might not receive a favorable answer.
This is the Public Health™ empire that the likes of Anthony Fauci have erected, in which everyone understands implicitly how their bread gets buttered, and no one with a strong self-preservation instinct is willing to rock the boat. Financial interests prevail at all times over patient welfare.