In an exclusive interview for The Telegraph, Dame Sally Davies, England's former chief medical officer, expressed grave concern that overuse of antibiotics by hospitals treating coronavirus patients could fuel the spread of so-called superbugs that are resistant to all known antibiotics.
Antimicrobial resistance or AMR, "is a threat we have known [of] for years," Davies said. "It is a predictable and preventable crisis, and we should be clear on the extent of the risk that humanity is facing if we don’t act in time.”
According to recent research published in the British medical journal the Lancet, around half of those who succumb to coronavirus suffer a secondary infection, usually in the later stages of the disease, which is why almost all coronavirus patients who are admitted to hospital are given antibiotics, to prevent infections as well as to treat existing ones.
A CDC report from 2019 concluded that in the United States alone, 3 million people are infected by antibiotic-resistant diseases per year, causing almost 50,000 deaths.