Am I missing something? When WW itself has added medications to its offerings, why would this result in Oprah leaving the board? Or are those two things unrelated?
For a long time, Weight Watchers has said that if you just follow their points system, the weight will melt off and you won't need supplements or anything else. When most people think of Weight Watchers, they're probably not thinking about the weight loss drugs they now support; they're thinking of the years of points gimmick that make you feel like you can't lose weight unless you pay $10+/month to see if you can eat that food or not (rather than teaching anyone about calorie intake vs. output).
Weight Watchers relies on a subscription based model to "save" people from their fatness, and Oprah was the biggest WW pusher. She had tons of money and resources, was even on the board of WW, and still needed medications to manage her weight. I don't give a fuck, but people who bought into her ads and promos probably feel a little pissed off.
Wegovy is fairly new as a weight-loss drug (it's a rebranded diabetes treatment), but it's taking the weight-loss world by storm because it actually works.
In its clinical trial for weight-loss treatment in 2021, they tested it against a placebo and told both groups to combine the meds with lifestyle changes, and over the 68-week trial those on placebos lost an average of under 3% body weight while those on Wegovy lost almost 15%.
Yes and no. It actually causes weight loss, sometimes a large amount of weight loss. But it's being sold as 'this will make you thin' and, in general, that isn't true. You are not going to go from obese to thin if you just take Wegovy and wait for the pounds to drop off.
Also, it does nothing to help people develop a healthy lifestyle.