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Re:World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' by jbigelow76 on Thursday November 19, 2015 @01:48PM (#10596664)
80% of antibiotic use in the USA goes to farm animals, not people. We could therefore significantly reduce the amount of antibiotics in our environment without affecting human lives.

Good luck with that. This would mean regulation, and that would mean going up against corporate farms and their lobbyists as well as the Senators and Congressmen they have in their pockets. America's legislative branch is actively hostile to science and anything that could impact the bottom line of their campaign donors.

Re:World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' by sanderjd on Thursday November 19, 2015 @02:03PM (#10596775)
Yeah, but now the grandparent commenter's nightmare "toddlers dying" scenario, which seems impossible to overcome, has been reduced to a "powerful lobbyists" scenario, which is daunting, but possible, to fight.
Re:World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' by TeMPOraL on Thursday November 19, 2015 @02:04PM (#10596781)
The problem is that there won't be any real fight before toddlers start dying, because until then you can always leave the issue for later.
Re:World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' by DanBC on Thursday November 19, 2015 @03:32PM (#10597405)
Toddlers are already dying.
Re:World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' by TeMPOraL on Thursday November 19, 2015 @03:42PM (#10597484)
Not enough yet, apparently.
Re:World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' by beachstartup on Thursday November 19, 2015 @02:34PM (#10596982)
the unfortunate truth is that the toddlers have to start dying for the lobbyists to start losing.
Re:World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' by m3rc on Thursday November 19, 2015 @02:41PM (#10597025)
Well we've got even worse problems if we can't combat the lobbyist plague in the US
Re:World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' by TeMPOraL on Thursday November 19, 2015 @02:44PM (#10597046)
We have even worse problems if we can't stop the climate change, or at least the acidification of oceans. Unfortunately, economic incentives don't respond well to things that are still in the future.