America


Debate Rages Over Weight Loss Drugs Like Ozempic


Medical experts want to make them more accessible, but Trump’s health czar says that’s a bad idea.


L


BY LISA SCHIFFREN


ast christmas, elon musk published a picture of him- self on X, dressed as Santa, standing in front of a Christ-


mas tree. He was thrilled with how sleek


he looked. He captioned it “Ozempic Santa.” Later he clarified that he actually


had used competing drug Mounjaro, made by Eli Lilly — which he likes better — to attain the sleek- ness, but the name doesn’t have the same pop cultural resonance. Musk is a fan of semaglutide and tirzepatide — medi- cations that are revolutionizing the fight against obesity in America. Not everyone in the Trump admin-


MUSK 22 NEWSMAX | MAY 2025


istration shares his enthusiasm. “Make America Healthy Again” guru Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a very dif- ferent take. The secretary of health and human


services is highly conscious of the obesity epidemic, but he’s radically opposed to the weight loss drugs and to making them more accessible. Shortly before the election in November, he told Fox News that “if we just gave good food, three meals a day, to every man, woman, and child in our country, we could solve the obe- sity and diabetes epi- demic overnight.” He added that


Novo Nordisk, the Danish drug compa- ny that makes Ozem- pic and Wegovy, is “counting on sell- ing it to Americans because we are so stu-


pid and so addicted to drugs.” It remains to be seen what RFK


Jr.’s official position on the drugs will be in his role as head of HHS. But it’s hard to imagine a world


in which our eating habits can be changed enough so that tens of mil- lions of overweight and obese Ameri- cans can shed excess weight without some medical help. According to the Centers for Dis-


ease Control and Prevention: 42% of Americans are obese. More


are overweight. 20% of children are overweight


or obese. 31% of young people ages 17-24 are


too fat to serve in the military. These facts are devastating. Type


2 diabetes and heart disease are two very common offshoots of obesity, as are some types of cancer. Obesity itself has been considered


a disease by the American Medical Association since 2013. Ozempic and Mounjaro are both primarily diabetes drugs, which lower


BACKGROUND/J STUDIOS/GETTY IMAGES / RFK JR./PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES


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