The coronavirus crisis has prompted a rethink on obesity

Editorial: Any effective strategy should start with trying to promote more active lifestyles

A watershed for junk food adverts could be introduced (Getty)

The scourge of coronavirus has had two dramatic effects on the decades-long debate about government policy on obesity. One is the direct effect: that overweight people are more susceptible to serious harm from the disease and are more likely to die from it. That is what the prime minister says has spurred him to take obesity seriously, both for himself and for the rest of the nation.

The other effect is less obvious: the response to the virus has shown that people are more willing than we thought to accept intrusive government instructions, provided they command public support in promoting good health and saving lives. The huge changes to people’s behaviour were partly dictated by people themselves responding to information about the disease, but also by state direction unprecedented even in wartime.

The Independent has long argued that it is not the government’s job to legislate to make people thin, but the experience of the past few months suggests that there may be more that governments can do to nudge behaviour in the direction in which people already want to go. We never adhered to the pure liberal principle on smoking, for example, partly because of the healthcare costs borne by the whole of society; but the impact of coronavirus suggests that the line could be drawn further towards the pole marked “state interference” without significant encroachment on individual liberty.