DeSantis Eviscerates New Health Guidelines For Childhood Obesity Recommending Drugs and Surgery
Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing back against new medical guidelines that propose drugs and surgery as a means of helping kids lose weight. The American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidelines on Monday to include weight loss pills, gastric bypass surgery, and stomach reduction as recommended treatment options for children as young as 13. At a Thursday press conference, the governor slammed the changes as drastic.
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“I think you have so much where they say ‘okay what can we make money off of first.’ […] they’re saying, ‘well these kids that are overweight should be pumped full of drugs and given surgeries for being overweight. I think that that’s them just trying to monetize this issue.” – Gov. Ron DeSantis
For young teens, resorting to surgeries and medication to lose weight seems not only excessive but financially taxing. Simple exercise can effectively treat childhood obesity, but there is little profit in that for drug manufacturers. Suggesting that people can substitute healthy living with experimental pharmaceuticals only benefits the very worst people that America has to offer. Fortunately, Florida is taking a stand.
“Fact of the matter is kids years ago were more active than they are now, they had better diets than they have now, so why don’t we focus on those things whether than try to pump them with pharmaceuticals.”
The governor is correct.
In the United States, nearly 14.4 million children struggle with obesity. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly 36.2% of America’s children were overweight or obese. By August 2021, that figure had risen to 45.7%. The fattening of America is a disaster, accelerated by the nation’s draconian COVID lockdown policies. Shutting down schools, discouraging most forms of activity, and enforcing constant isolation played a central role in today’s skyrocketing rates of childhood obesity. The solution, as DeSantis suggests, is to reverse the harmful, sedentary lifestyle imposed upon Americans by their government.
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DeSantis has consistently challenged the public health “consensus” of the CDC bureaucracy and Big Pharma throughout his tenure as governor. His latest policy efforts have been directed at lowering prescription drug costs by reining in the influence of unchecked pharmacy benefit managers.
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