Victoria Ojukwu is a a fourth-year Global and Community Health major and an aspiring physician. The Global and Community Health Program interviewed Ojukwu about her experience in our GCH 190 about GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Drugs (like Ozempic and Wegovy) and their effect on society.
Q: Could you please introduce yourself?
A: Hi, my name is Tori and I’m a GCH (Global and Community Health) student at UC Santa Cruz.
Q: Why did you choose Global and Community Health (GCH) at UC Santa Cruz?
A: I chose GCH because I think the program does a really good job of connecting the different interdisciplinaries of social sciences, biological sciences, and also psychology. It’s a really great, multi-faceted program because where else would I be able to learn about the Global Community Taskforce while I’m taking my biochemistry and my other sociology classes?
Q: What public health issue is your GCH 190 Taskforce class focusing on?
A: My Taskforce course is focusing on GLP-1 receptor agonists, also known as Ozempic, Wegovy, semaglutides. It’s basically medications like Ozempic and Wegovy that are used to treat type 2 diabetes, but they can also treat obesity in some patients. We look, not only at the medical aspects of the medication, but also at the societal and the political or the policy implications of the medication. That’s all due to their growing popularity. The Ozempic boom has shot up in the last two-three years.
Q: Why do you think it is important for a Global and Community Health Student to take this class?
A: I feel like this class is a very realistic take on what a lot of us GCH majors will be facing out in the real world like science, society, and policy. We are all going to see that sometime in our careers. It pushes us to analyze a threat–not a threat, but a health issue from multiple angles.
Q: How do GLP-1 receptor agonists affect our community here in Santa Cruz?
A: I’m going to assume that Santa Cruz is like many other American cities where we have a large amount of people with heart disease and other chronic diseases that affect their lifestyle and access to Ozempic would be greatly beneficial for people with diabetes or obesity related issues. GLP-1 medications can be life-changing for these people, but it’s really hard to access due to barriers and care. Just because of this, the conversation around Ozempic isn’t just medical, it’s also about affordability, misinformation, and community health literacy.
Q: What is your class doing to help educate people about the effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists in public health?
A: My class is compiling all of our findings into a large taskforce report. Imagine 20 people all writing 30 pages about Ozempic; the medical issues, the medical science behind Ozempic, the basic science behind Ozempic, societal impact of Ozempic, and the policy changes that should be implemented to control Ozempic. We’re just developing a very accessible report that anyone can read if they want to be informed about any of those topics.
Q: How has the taskforce class changed your perspective on public health?
A: I’m just learning how interconnected medicine is with social media culture and also how public health isn’t about just the treatments, but also about how society interprets these treatments because Ozempic wouldn’t be this popular if people didn’t know it’s a weight loss hack. If it was only just a type 2 diabetes medicine, it would be less known about like other medications. You don’t see anybody taking insulin to lose weight!
Q: Do you have a favorite memory from your taskforce class?
A: Best taskforce professor on campus. He went through the syllabus with us and I knew this was going to be, not only a really informative class because we had guest speakers coming in, but this guy actually cares about helping us write this report and I get a published report with my name on it so that’s like [hand signals her mind being blown]. That was just my favorite memory ever because I knew this was going to be one of my favorite classes to take senior year and it is!