https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/antibiotic-resistance-could-lead-to-more-covid-19-deaths/ > In four months, COVID-19 has transformed the world. Thousands of lives have ended, billions are in quarantine, and global economies have shed trillions of U.S. dollars. Regaining control will depend on our ability to model and implement effective physical distancing measures, provide sufficient respirators and protective gear, maintain functioning health systems, and develop effective vaccines, therapies and rapid diagnostics. Control is also crucially dependent on the continued ability of our antibiotics to stay on top of bacterial pathogens. > It may seem strange to focus on antibiotics during a viral pandemic. However, bacterial superinfections are often what make pandemics like COVID-19 especially deadly. During the 1918–1920 global influenza pandemic, a large proportion of patients died not from the virus itself but from secondary bacterial pneumonia that spread easily in the crowded hospital wards among the often malnourished and immunocompromised individuals.