Tackle antimicrobial resistance with a pandemic-style mobilization

Some pathogenic threats, such as COVID-19, are difficult to anticipate. A number of scientists did warn that a pandemic would eventually come our way, but its timing and its precise form were unknown. Even so, multiple vaccines were developed and deployed with extraordinary speed, largely thanks to unprecedented funding and years of foundational vaccine research. By contrast, the specific and wide-reaching dangers posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been known about and anticipated for as long as we’ve had the drugs themselves.