We take too many antibiotics. We’re starting to pay for it.

In today’s Big Story podcast, it seems kind of wrong to call them “superbugs”—even though it is a very effective term. Really, they’re antibiotic-resistant bacteria, who have evolved to survive the things that threaten their existence. Just like every other living thing, including us, has done forever. And now they pose a growing threat.

The problem is that when they evolve, we get sicker, and people die. So our medicines have to evolve, too. And nobody wins when that happens. So perhaps we just need to figure out when, exactly, we really need medicine. And when we don’t.

GUEST: Dr. Kevin Schwartz, Infection Prevention and Control, Public Health Ontario

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