Drug resistant bacteria (by the articles own numbers) has killed less people per year than if you were to amortize the cost in lives of Germany's very-powerful state (and then you can add the 49-78,000,000 people killed by Mao). I, for one, am proud that Libertarians look for ways to avoid coercion and want to promote voluntary means. Bans don't work for drugs - I hope people have realized this by now...
Sorry, but I find the "its such a good idea! lets force everyone to do it!" mentality quite irritating. Most solutions come from outside government. Instead of throwing huge capital at a fruitless ban, we should instead use the money on useful research. (such as the link about bacteriophages below: http://www.metafilter.com/134210/Imagining-the-Post-Antibiot...) Or even an educational campaign.
ah yes this emerging threat currently kills fewer people in a single year than an entire genocidal campaign did over the course of six. excellent point, as i'm sure deaths from previously preventable infections are sure to only drop in the future. we wouldn't want to coerce large scale farmers running indisputably torturous husbandry operations into preventing a spike in infant mortality now!
by the way, the phage therapy described in the comment you linked was largely developed by the soviets. lol
> ah yes this emerging threat currently kills fewer people in a single year than an entire genocidal campaign did over the course of six.
That's not what I said. You can multiply the yearly number by 100 (antibiotics were discovered less than 100 years ago) and still not touch the number of lives lost to overly powerful states.
as a side note: thanks for the link on bacteriophages. very cool
> by the way, the phage therapy described in the comment you linked was largely developed by the soviets. lol
Definitely lol! From the link:
"While d’Herelle is said to have been initially enamored with communism, he was soon soured on it when Eliava was suddenly kidnapped, murdered, and denounced by Beria (it likely had as much to do with Beria demonstrating that even Heroes of Soviet Science were not immune to his power..."
Its no surprise that scientists still tried to save lives despite the state - not because of it.
Not having useful drugs against bacterial infections has killed many more people in the past than all violent governments combinded. Because bacteria infections where the number one killer for centuries.
Do you similarly disagree with vaccination? After all, that is also a government-led imposition for the greater good of improving the population's health.
Sorry, but I find the "its such a good idea! lets force everyone to do it!" mentality quite irritating. Most solutions come from outside government. Instead of throwing huge capital at a fruitless ban, we should instead use the money on useful research. (such as the link about bacteriophages below: http://www.metafilter.com/134210/Imagining-the-Post-Antibiot...) Or even an educational campaign.