Sometimes, a breakthrough comes along that fundamentally changes the medical landscape, making it difficult to imagine what life was like before it appeared. – Penicillin was discovered in 1928. Twenty years later there was chemotherapy. In the 1990s, antiretrovirals for HIV became available. Some doctors now have equally high hopes for the rapid development of weight-loss drugs to address the obesity crisis.

The latest example of this in the UK came last week, when health secretary Wes Streeting announced that drugs such as Wegovy or Mounjaro could be given to unemployed people to help them get back to work.