This is how the world ends...

Stephen King's The Stand has long been one of my favorite novels.[1] It scared the shit out of me. Largely, the reason why is because I read it when news of the U.S. AIDs epidemic was only beginning to surface. There were many (unintended) similarities between King's Captain Trips and AIDs which at that time wasn't openly acknowledged and didn't even have a name. If you want a good idea of what was going on at the time, I'd recommend watching And The Band Played On. In any case, ever since then I've had a fascination with epidemics.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was listening to NPR and this story came on the air, and it's terrifying. We've known about antibiotic resistance for fifteen years. And yet, very little has been done about it. One of the main reasons why is because the main market for antibiotics (80% of the market, in fact) is the commercial farming industry. It isn't the average consumer in the form of antibacterial soap and antibiotic prescriptions.  (Although, no doubt that doesn't help.) Commercial agriculture is the larger market by far. Of course, the industry claims that they're cutting down. However, "According to the Food and Drug Administration, which compiles these numbers, sales of antibiotics for use on the farm increased in 2014, just as they had for most years before that." (From NPR article titled Antibiotic Use On Farms is Up, Despite Promises to Kick the Drugs.) Something needs to be done and soon because now E. Coli Bacteria can transfer antibiotic resistance to other bacteria. 

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​[1] All but the end, anyway. Endings are hard. Endings for novels about good and evil evolving around Christianity are even more difficult, if you ask me. It's almost impossible to keep the stakes high while not letting the story devolve into something out of a bible.