[Sohcahtoa82]

To add to this, despite all efforts to educate people, many STILL don't know that antibiotics don't work against viruses and will want one when dealing with a cold or other viral infection.

If we let antibiotics be over-the-counter, every damn infectious bacteria will be a super-strain in a year.

[nekusar]

Antibiotics are routinely given to all of their farm animals as part of their food, for prophylaxis. But allowing humans to buy when they're sick is somehow the super-strain-end-of-times??

Antibiotics stop bacteria. Antivirals stop viruses.

Except bacteria can be attacked whenever, the sooner the better.

Antivirals need a rapid and early timeframe to work. Getting a fucking doctor to say yes is almost always too long, and you missed your treatment window. That is unless you go the ER, and lucky to not get shoved aside. Then pay $$$$$

[Melatonic]

Those are two separate issues and we obviously should not be just giving feedstock and animals antibiotics constantly. That's no good for anyone.

Maybe the better solution is that the government should be paying for the Lyme test as a public health measure. Knowing which areas it is spreading too is extremely important.

And on the flip side I know someone whose father got Lyme but didn't know it for years - he was not very symptomatic at first and ended up with major nerve damage. Not one to mess around with

[bigfishrunning]

> Antibiotics are routinely given to all of their farm animals as part of their food, for prophylaxis.

That's also a problem [0]; and it's one that can't be solved by creating a second, somewhat related problem.

0: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11200672/