17
votes
Novo Nordisk suggested to senior UK government officials that they could “profile” benefit claimants – those who are most likely to return to the labour market
Link information
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- Title
- Revealed: obesity jab maker discussed targeting benefit claimants with UK government
- Authors
- Shanti Das, Jon Ungoed-Thomas
- Published
- Nov 18 2023
- Word count
- 1338 words
That's really creepy. I get that it's in every government's best interest to have a healthy and productive populace, and in the interest of every citizen that the people around them are productive, but the government giving people drugs with the explicit understanding that it would make them into more productive citizens is just straight out of British dystopian literature of the prior century.
The current government are absolutely reprehensible, spineless and shameless so this doesn't even surprise me.
They just see the general public as cogs in the machine and they are the owners.
Small aside, is the term "jab" in the UK used with any implied positive or negative connotations?
In the US, I have only heard the phrase used by entities with very strong opinions against vaccines (both covid and others). It feels very strange to see the phrase used in both the title and the first sentence, while the article contents don't seem to be concerned with the injection itself rather the deployment and scheming around it.
As a sombody from the UK, as far as I can tell, the term is entirely neutral. It has been used ever since I can remember, as a verb and a noun (to be jabbed, and the flu jab). It is used for all vaccines ex: the flu, COVID, MMR, etc, and doesn't really come with any connotations.
As an outside observer I’ve always understood it to be a neutral term that just happens to be different from ones common here, like boot instead of trunk. Thanks for confirming.
Unrelated follow up question: is the ‘v’ in ‘bruv’ voiced or unvoiced?
Voiced.
It is for sure bruV.
Thanks for confirming, bruh. I’ve always assumed it was voiced, presumably a slightly longer version of our “bruh+tha” to “bruh” that would seem more natural when brother is “bruh+va”.
I have to be honest, it's not a word I say often so I could be wrong but I would say yes.
I recently discovered a great website which shows you YouTube clips of certain words being used in context (in different languages and regions/accents). It's called Youglish and here's the page for 'bruv' if that helps.
I can't speak for the UK, but in an Australian context I feel like 'jab' will be used fairly neutrally. For example various governments have used it in the name of legislation promoting innoculation.
I've had a different experience than you in the U.S., I've had many friends, who are pro vaccine, use "the jab" in a neutral sense, just to refer to the vaccine. Like "have you gotten the jab yet?"
Edit: spelling
I mostly see "jab" used in the US in a negative connotation, but know folks like myself who consume a lot of British, Australian and/or NZ media and who have picked up the slang.
I'm wondering if others are also getting it from the anti-vax folks in response to their verbiage.