I have never advocated that people who routinely feed low doses of antibiotics to livestock should be executed without trial. That would be too harsh, too irrevocable. There should be fair trials, and fines for a first offense, and prison for a second. Only habitual offenders should face the death penalty.
But first, there has to be a law. At the moment, it isn't even illegal in most countries.
At the United Nations on Sept. 21, every single member country signed a declaration that recognizes the rise in antibiotic resistance as a threat to the entire enterprise of modern medicine. It's a start, but that's all it is — and time is running out.
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