It is often said that everyone currently loses themselves in an obsession with beauty and perfection. And although some refuse to admit it, the sad fact is that it is becoming truer with every passing moment.
Starting in April of 2022, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, who manages the imports and exports of drugs in Australia, began to receive hundreds of messages all with the same concern; there was a huge shortage in the prescription drug Ozempic all around the world. Even worse was the cause of the shortage; society’s vain obsession with being “perfect.” To give some context; Ozempic is a once-weekly injection prescribed by a doctor to help regulate blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. Further, the drug has many side-effects to which the most common among them is abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. These side effects are the reason so many people are attracted to this drug right now.
Although the drug is for people with type 2 diabetes, vomiting is more common among people without it which can cause rapid weight loss. This quality is what started to get so much attention. After this was discovered, suddenly hundreds of people without diabetes were begging their doctors to prescribe them Ozempic in hopes of weight loss. Consequently, with the rapid growth in demand for the product, the supply couldn’t meet the demand, and a major shortage was caused.
This is a huge problem for diabetics who depend on this medicine. Suddenly, their medicine is being taken away by people who don’t even need it to live. Doctors’ offices were filled with people just wanting to fit society’s image of perfection via weight loss. In May of 2024, it was estimated that 15.5 million U.S. adults had used drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, made by the same company as Ozempic, to lose weight. While some people don’t see this as a huge problem because it allows people to change their lives for the better through rapid weight loss, it affects everyday people such as a local Galveston resident, Christy Hickerson.
Christy is a hard-working mother to her children who live and attend school on the island. She suffers from type 2 diabetes to which Ozempic has helped immensely. In a recent interview she states,” The shortage has increased the risk of harm to patients including myself with type 2 diabetes who need Ozempic. I am glad they are putting in place that it has to be verified you’re a diabetic.” Her quote absolutely captures the essence of the problem perfectly. She even goes on to add her concern of the cost (which of course has gone up due to difficulties producing the product). ”I have insurance, so I am lucky but I believe it needs to be a price break for the ones who can’t afford it and need it desperately.”
This shortage is dangerous to say the least. Not just for the pople taking Ozempic for weight loss, but especially the people who are in dire need of the drug. It is a sick situation to which so many fears won’t end soon enough. The Ozempic shortage should have never happened in the first place.
Today’s demoralized society has become even more entranced by beauty in the form of a starving, skinny human being and this has absolutely devastated a huge group of people who need help. So many people are now without life-saving medication because of a new trend of people wanting to essentially be bulimic. If people don’t see the errors of their ways soon it could mean the destruction of so many more people’s lives.