Can colleges mandate ozempic?
Established precedent says yes!
Consider this: colleges were among the most relentless in mandating boosters for young men and women. Most made no exemption for having had and recovered from covid. Even though it was clear that boosters were a net harm to young men, they mandated them anyway.
Covid19 vaccines do not protect others. With time, there is an ~100% chance everyone will get covid whether we force vaccines on college kids or any other subset of Americans.
Critics distract from this point and talk about short term transmission reduction, but that is silly. If your house is washed away by a hurricane, it's no longer important that you nailed the shutters and tossed a sandbag out front beforehand.
Therefore, when colleges mandate these shots, they are saying: we are allowed to mandate interventions if we believe it is in the best interest of our students. We don't need benefits to third parties. We are allowed to embrace surrogate endpoints, and no one can question us.
By that logic, it is clear, colleges can mandate ozempic for overweight students
Consider the facts:
Boosters do not provide benefit to others/ Ozempic does not provide benefit to others
Boosters increase antibody titers/ Ozempic lowers weight
We don’t know if boosters reduce severe disease at these ages/ we don’t know if Ozempic makes you live longer at these ages
Expert groups recommend bivalent boosters (CDC) and experts recommend ozempic (AAP)
Both are FDA approved/ authorized
Ergo, by established precedent, colleges can mandate Ozempic.
Some may argue there are differences. COVID-19 is a pandemic, an emergency. But this is also true for obesity. It has reached epidemic proportions and has many bad health consequences. It is also linked to bad COVID outcomes!
Others may say that Ozempic's randomized trials is small (at these ages) and much is unknown about clinical endpoint. The same is true for boosters.
Some will argue Covid19 vaccines absolutely work in older people-- improving hard outcomes. Yes, and ozempic absolutely works in older people w diabetes-- improving hard outcomes.
The puzzle I am illustrating is that once a university crosses the Rubicon and decides it can mandate what it thinks is in the best interest of students (without benefit to third parties), the logical end is far. Ozempic could be mandated.
Of course, obviously I oppose these braindead mandates and this essay is just meant to further show the absurdity. I would certainly not mandate ozempic. But then again I would not mandate boosters either. Too bad universities chose poorly.
Plus, people who don't take ozempic might be putting extra strain on the healthcare system. Therefore, if you don't take it, hospitals should refuse to treat you.
To mandate something there must be a demonstrated benefit with the highest quality data.
What bothers me the most is the flippancy about mandating something. Forcing someone to take a medicine in spite of their conscience and in spite of lack of substantial benefit, through faceless bureaucratic policy is clearly a form of violence against the individual.