While the pandemic is by no means over, Covid-19 isn't the only threat to public health we face. In fact, it might not even be our most serious challenge.
Despite the tragic loss of more than 2,000 American lives to the virus each day, case counts have dropped dramatically in recent weeks, and hospitalizations and deaths are falling too. Covid-19 remains nightmarish for many but is no longer an existential problem for the healthcare system as a whole.
By contrast, we're rapidly losing the ability to fight "superbugs," the bacteria and fungi that have evolved and developed resistance to almost all existing antimicrobial treatments. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) already kills at least 35,000 Americans each year and about 700,000 people worldwide. A recent global report from The Lancet found that in 2019 there were an estimated 4.95 million deaths associated with bacterial AMR, including 1.27 million deaths directly attributable to it.
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