One of the incidental effects of the coronavirus crisis was to lift obesity high up the public health agenda. Charities and medical royal colleges in the UK had been campaigning for years for measures to reduce consumption of salt, sugar and fat, especially by children, but had achieved only limited results. The biggest breakthrough had come in 2016, when the government introduced the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, which taxed producers of drinks that contained more than 5 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres. When it came into effect two years later, a minister – making use of a calculation by CRUK – acknowledged that teenagers consume ‘nearly a bathtub of sugary drinks each year’. The campaign had been led by Sustain, a charity that runs a variety of projects to improve food and farming, backed by the chef and food writer Jamie Oliver. Once the tax came in, however, campaigners felt that any further measures were being kicked into the long grass by the government.

All that changed after the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, emerged in April 2020 from intensive care after a battle with COVID-19. Doctors were already becoming aware that obesity was a factor in the disease, and on 25 July Public Health England issued a report saying ‘people with Covid-19 who are living with overweight or obesity, compared with those of a healthy weight, are at increased risk of serious Covid-19 complications and death’. Two days later the government announced new measures to combat obesity, including a ban on TV and online advertising before 9 pm of foods high in fat, sugar and salt. The announcement was accompanied by an interview with Johnson saying he had been “way overweight … I was too fat”.

The episode was an example of how the personal experiences of people in power can suddenly give momentum to longstanding, but struggling, charity campaigns. As part of its Children's Food Campaign, Sustain had been pressing for more than ten years for the TV ban, which its deputy chief executive, Ben Reynolds, welcomed as ‘real game-changer’. He pointed out that obesity was not just about personal willpower: ‘You just have to look at the environment that we live in – the torrent of unhealthy food that bombards us – dominating advertising, our high streets, through to in-store promotions – it's everywhere.’