{"id":180725,"date":"2025-06-13T09:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T09:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/180725\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T09:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T09:25:14","slug":"weight-loss-drug-jd-vances-wild-take-on-weight-loss-drug-ozempic-sparks-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/180725\/","title":{"rendered":"Weight Loss Drug: JD Vance’s wild take on weight loss drug Ozempic sparks criticism |"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JD Politicians usually avoid cracking jokes about eating habits\u2014especially when it comes to weight loss drugs. But not JD Vance. The Vice President of the United States stunned listeners with a strange and awkward take on the popular diabetes and weight loss drug Ozempic, casually tossing in a cannibalism reference that many are calling “gross” and “tone-deaf.”On a recent appearance on comedian Theo Von\u2019s podcast, Vance launched into an unscripted riff about a medical commercial he\u2019d seen. \u201cI only saw it briefly,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I could have sworn that two of the medications in this med pack were\u2014Ivermectin and Ozempic. And I’m like thinking to myself, what is the situation where you need emergency Ozempic?\u201dThen came the part that really raised eyebrows. With a laugh, Vance added, \u201cI thought like, you know, if you have a Donner Party situation… and it\u2019s like alright, we gotta suppress our appetites.\u201dWait\u2014what?<\/p>\n

What was the Donner Party?<\/p>\n

\"2\"<\/p>\n

Credit: X\/@pitsenberger<\/p>\n

To decode Vance\u2019s joke, you\u2019d have to go back to 1846, when a group of American pioneers known as the Donner Party became stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains while traveling to California. With winter closing in and food supplies exhausted, some members of the group reportedly resorted to cannibalism to survive.It\u2019s a dark, tragic chapter in American history\u2014and probably not the best setup for a punchline about a modern weight-loss drug.<\/p>\n

Social media reactions<\/p>\n

Social media lit up in the hours after the podcast aired, with critics slamming Vance for making light of both the desperation of the Donner Party and the medical struggles of people using Ozempic. Many pointed out that the drug is not just used by people who want to lose weight, but is also used by diabetes patients. One user commented, \u201cOzempic was designed for patients with diabetes, and people with the disease also use it, J Dunce. Diabetes can be caused by other conditions, like pancreatitis and pregnancy. \u201cAnother commented, \u201cWhat kinda of #weirdo uses “Donner Party” as the metric to evaluate bulimic therapy???\u201d A third said, \u201cWhy is he talking like he is expert on something he doesn’t know about? Ozempic is a diabetic drug. It helps to regulate sugar in diabetics.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is Ozempic?<\/p>\n

\"3\"Ozempic is a prescription medication primarily used to help manage type 2 diabetes. It works by mimicking a natural hormone that regulates blood sugar levels and slows digestion, which can help people feel fuller for longer. While not originally developed as a weight loss drug, one of its side effects is appetite suppression\u2014leading to noticeable weight loss in many patients. In recent years, Ozempic has entered the public conversation beyond diabetes care, with growing demand among people seeking medical help for obesity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Politicians usually avoid cracking jokes about eating habits\u2014especially when it comes to weight loss drugs. But not JD…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[74406,74409,105,74411,4326,74407,74408,74410,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-180725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-diabetes-medication","9":"tag-donner-party-joke","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-jd-vance-ozempic","12":"tag-medication","13":"tag-ozempic-drug-controversy","14":"tag-ozempic-weight-loss","15":"tag-social-media-reactions-ozempic","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114675340037085585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}