[ExI] The post-antibiotic era

[BillK]

On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 10:20 PM, Anders Sandberg  wrote:
> Note that my point isn't that antibiotics resistance is a trivial matter: it
> isn't. But it seems that people tend to end up thinking that their
> particular nasty problem is the End of the World. There are *plenty* of
> ongoing tough problems more (or at least rational) effort should be going
> into - nuclear weapon safety, pandemics, couplings between the food and
> energy system, climate change, invasive species, digital freedom,
> underdevelopment of vaccines, Eroom's law, demographic trouble, massive
> digital insecurity, bioweapons, priority setting itself... antibiotics
> resistance is on the list, but it may not be the top.
>
> What annoys me with the media references that have been mentioned in this
> thread is the shrill doomsayer tone. Maybe the writers think that is a good
> way of getting people off their couches to *do* something. After all, it
> worked for nuclear weapons... I mean climate change... I mean
> cybersecurity... actually, I think it *only* worked for the Y2K bug. Which
> is an interesting data point.
>


I think the UK Chief Medical Officer (and her deputy) writing in the
Lancet and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might be
a trifle upset at being called 'doomsayers'.

There are different kinds and scales of risks. Since the Cold War
ended hardly anyone even considers nuclear annihilation as a
significant risk. (Maybe they should, of course).

But people are already dying in hospitals from antibiotic resistant
infections. That strikes close to home, so people see it as a much
bigger risk. In my own life I would certainly be far more worried
about dying in hospital from a resistant infection than a nuclear bomb
in London.

People will always consider personal risks to be far more important
than vague large-scale threats.
Especially when they can see a simple, specific cure for the problem -
New antibiotics.

The cure for large scale threats is neither obvious or
straightforward, so let's solve the easier, more pressing problems
first.


BillK