Oprah Winfrey’s TV special Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution has been streamed more than 4 million times since it aired in March 2024. In it, the talk show host described Ozempic as being “the relief and support and freedom” that some people have been waiting for their whole lives.
This might have been easy for a billionaire like Winfrey to say. Weight-loss drugs can be game-changing for people who are obese, but getting hold of them is far from a level playing field, with knock-on effects for the obesity levels of the rich versus the poor. But this inequality is just one of many societal issues on the horizon. Ultra-slim beauty norms may be re-emerging, and some analysts predict changes to our collective appetite for junk food. In the era of Wegovy, we could also see an increase in the stigma around obesity that exists in some countries.
This article is part of a special series investigating the GLP-1 agonist boom. Read more here.
In the UK, only those with a body mass index of more than 35 (within the obesity range) and at least one weight-related health complication are generally eligible to receive Wegovy or Mounjaro on the National Health Service (see “How they work”, below). In the US, the use of these drugs for weight loss often isn’t covered by insurers, which means many people are paying out of pocket. With costs of roughly $1000 a month in the US and between £150 and £200 a month in the UK, “better-off people will have access and poor people won’t,” says Margaret Steele at…
