Ben Kerr spoke to KUOW about antibiotics and the pandemic.

A recent report in the journal Science suggested that antibiotic use for this purpose was surging both in the U.S. and worldwide. As a consequence, bacteria may be experiencing more exposure to antibacterial compounds generally, antibiotics specifically, which has been shown to favor the evolution of antibiotic resistance. It might seem confusing why antibiotic prescription has increased during a viral epidemic, but actually, in past viral pandemics, the 1918 flu epidemic as well as the 2009 flu epidemic, a large fraction of individuals, the cause of death turned out to be due to secondary bacterial infections.