The 'New' Pandemic?

Laura Spinney is right to be concerned about the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/15/creating-conditions-next-pandemic-antibiotics). Spinney is even right to point out that declining efficacies of antibiotics may come to play a role in infections such as that by Covid-19. Although viruses are not treatable with antibiotics, infected patients often get secondary bacterial infections. My main bone of contention is the impression that this phenomenon is, in any sense, 'new' (I have been teaching this to undergraduates for at least 15 years!). The problems have always been that there is a) a limited range of antibiotics (and, at least until recently, little incentive to pharmaceutical companies to develop new ones) and b) gross overuse of these medications. Overuse includes patients pestering for an antibiotic prescription for a viral infection (like influenza or the common cold) and the use of these compounds as growth enhancers by the meat farming industry. Pretty obviously, exposing bacteria to antibiotics, exerts extreme selection pressure on these organisms. Only bacteria surviving the treatment, get to multiply in the next generation (they can develop a variety of mechanisms to facilitate resistance and some can even be genetically transferred to other bacterial species). Antibiotic use is why major clusters of antibiotic resistant bacteria are found in hospitals, gyms etc. The WHO (and other scientific bodies) have warned for decades of a likely return to a pre-antibiotic age, where relatively minor infections can kill. Infections by antibiotic resistant bacteria currently cost countries billions of dollars. We really do need to find mechanisms for continuously extending the range of available antibiotics, as well as cutting down on inappropriate use.