December 31, 2022 — “It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” With this anonymous piece of wisdom in mind, it still makes sense to take a moment to look back at the trends that we hoped and expected to shape the year we complete today. So here’s a narrative report card on our 2022 trend predictions. You, […]
December 30, 2022 — CNN, we’re looking at you. Your story claiming that “people with diabetes pay the price” for semaglutide use in obesity is problematic. The story falsely describes the demand for semaglutide as “a hot new weight loss fad.” That is simply wrong. Providing medical care for people who are trying to deal with the complex chronic […]
December 29, 2022 — Very quietly, just before Christmas, FDA approved a major step forward for treating obesity in teens. The agency issued an approval for Wegovy brand of semaglutide to treat obesity in teens. There was no press release at FDA, none on the corporate website for Novo Nordisk. As late as yesterday, the news of this approval […]
December 16, 2022 — We’re zooming toward the end of 2022, so it’s hard to resist looking back to see which of the posts on ConscienHealth you read the most. We are grateful for the smart and diverse people who take the time to read what we post here. Seeing what captures your attention teaches us a thing or […]
December 15, 2022 — If nothing else, the last few years have transformed global supply chains from an arcane business concern into something that touched everyone. Setting aside toilet paper and electronics, let’s think for about moment about a supply chain that will be a problem stretching into the coming year – the supply chain for obesity care. How […]
December 10, 2022 — In a perverse way, there might be some good news in the current frothy coverage about new medicines for obesity and diabetes. We are a bit fed up with nonsense about who “deserves” access to care with drugs like semaglutide. But it does serve to highlight some of the usually hidden biases about treating obesity. […]
December 2, 2022 — It doesn’t take a genius to understand the futility of sprinting in a marathon. But it does seem to take some knowledge and insight to differentiate between the sprint of short-term weight loss and the marathon of obesity treatment. Right now that distinction matters because of a short supply of drugs that are medically necessary […]
November 20, 2022 — Fed up. That’s where we are with stories about how people taking semaglutide for obesity are keeping people with diabetes from getting an adequate supply of the drug they need. Fed up, because it’s a stealthy way of expressing implicit bias against people living with obesity. The subtext is that those people don’t really need […]
November 16, 2022 — It’s a fact. Media needs your attention. Thus, journalistic standards live in in tension with the temptation for sensational headlines that trivialize a subject like obesity. We’ve seen it before. Yet the current crop of sensational headlines offering a twisted understanding of serious new obesity treatments is especially disappointing. Here’s an example from the supposedly […]
November 7, 2022 — There’s a clue in the strained supply of new obesity and diabetes meds that most everyone is missing. For more than a year now, Novo Nordisk has been unable to produce and distribute an adequate supply of semaglutide in the form of Wegovy for the treatment of obesity. This has knock-on effects. So supply of […]
