ANTIBIOTICS WILL KILL OUR CHILDREN.

I think I must be hallucinating.

On television I think I've just seen an advertisement aimed at preventing people from demanding antibiotics from their GP whenever they have a sniffle. If I wasn't actually hallucinating, it was an abomination.

This advertisement was presented in such a childish fashion as be insulting to anyone with half a brain cell. Clearly it was aimed at those who lack even that little evidence of intelligence. 

Is the NHS hierarchy simply addressing those who have been failed by the education system or those whom its own prior advertising has failed to convince ? If the latter, is there not a better approach than adverts that treat the recipients as morons. Or do they think that most of the population are, indeed, morons ?

What is wrong with some genuinely intelligent and educational public service advertisements, leaflets and proper information ? Targeting the lowest common denominator suggests a shocking attitude towards the general population and betrays an utter contempt for their overall level of education and understanding

Or is that what our masters really want ? A general population that is poorly educated to such a degree that they'll accept whatever crap they're fed ? Antibiotics have their place and are dangerous if misused - is that such a hard message to convey ?

Sadly. I believe we're already well beyond this point and that the current approach to dealing with bacterial infections will not work for much longer, whatever we do. A new approach is required, which excludes simply using yet more and newer antibiotics. The bugs may not have brains but they do evolve and much more rapidly than do people. 

It's past time that governments came clean and told their people the whole, unvarnished truth. Unless they stop using antibiotics for colds and sneezes and as a general stop gap for all else, their children and grandchildren will die from all manner of other infections - the simplest scratch could lead to untreatable tetanus, a streptococcal  throat infection will be fatal. Post-operative infections will become commonplace and also frequently fatal, as they used to be before the advent of modern antibiotics.

We need honesty from our leaders. Will we ever get it ?