, Columnist
The Post-Antibiotic World Would Have Fewer Miracles
Life without antibiotics would be nasty, scary and shorter.
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Sometimes I imagine how our descendants will look back on our world. Unless something is done about antibiotic resistance, I'm very much afraid that they'll look upon us the way 19th-century science fiction writers viewed Atlantis: as a lost paradise of magical technology -- in this case, one in which you could go to a child coughing her life out with pneumonia, stick a needle in her arm, and watch the disease melt away almost before your eyes. The first doctors who treated patients with antibiotics felt like they were witnessing miracles. Our grandchildren may feel much the same way about the ease with which we cured disease.
QuickTake Antibiotic Resistance