CDC Threat Report: ‘We Will Soon Be in a Post-Antibiotic Era’ • Hacker News Board

Re: CDC Threat Report: ‘We Will Soon Be in a Post-Antibiotic Era’

#111

Post by aclevernickname » Wed, Sep 18, 2013, 7:06 PM UTC

anon1385 wrote: post #26

alan_cx wrote: post #23

Why is it that some apocalyptic scientific predictions are accepted, while others gain a culture of denial? Strikes me that one could construct a counter argument against this prediction which is as strong as the arguments, for example, climate change deniers use. Yet, no one has done so. I'm struggling to imagine why. Is there profit for the current big players in solving this issue, where as climate change solution…

If you speak to farmers or others in the meat industry you will find plenty of strong denial about antibiotics in farming being a risk. You will find all the usual arguments: it's impossible for bacteria in animals to ever affect humans, they use different kinds of antibiotics, we will find newer antibiotics to solve the problem Once And For All etc etc. For the most part the lack of widespread public denial is becau…

whoa whoa, why the character assasination on the Cato Institute? do you have any references to support your position on their motives?

Re: CDC Threat Report: ‘We Will Soon Be in a Post-Antibiotic Era’

#112

Post by aclevernickname » Wed, Sep 18, 2013, 7:24 PM UTC

VikingCoder wrote: post #82

stingraycharles wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People aren't the problem; it's the food industry that abuses antibiotics the most. When a pig gets ill, it's way cheaper to give her a dose of antibiotics instead of getting a vet.

You just (unintentionally) said that capitalism is the problem. If people were willing to pay for antibiotic-free meat, then farmers would produce it. They would call the vet, and maybe destroy the pig rather than treat it with antibiotics. By the way, you're naively presuming they're using antibiotics when the pig gets sick. Nope, they're using them prophylactically.

> You just (unintentionally) said that capitalism is the problem.

That's a strawman fallacy [1].

> If people were willing to pay for antibiotic-free meat, then farmers would produce it.

Seeing as most farming in the United States is done on megafarms owned by large corporations [2] that have historically shown to be (to put it mildly) lax on their focus on serving healthy and nutritious products to their customers [3], and that "farmers" in the traditional colloquial sense are now only 2% of the population [4], you'll hopefully understand if I say that your statement has little relevance in the United States in 2013.

[1] https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman

[2] http://thecabin.net/stories/091001/wor_0910010048.shtml

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithfield_Foods#Environmental_...

[4] http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/demographics.html

Re: CDC Threat Report: ‘We Will Soon Be in a Post-Antibiotic Era’

#113

Post by jessriedel » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 6:39 PM UTC

MartinCron wrote: post #96

jessriedel wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Antibiotics are now so widespread in use that you can detect them in the ground water and in the oceans. "Detectability" is a silly metric which tells you nothing about this issue. Molecules are really, really, ridiculously small. Most of the breaths you take contain atoms from Caesar's last gasp, but that doesn't tell you anything useful about the prevalence of Caesar.

It's the same kind if silly metric that is sticky, resonant, and evocative. If you want people to care about what you have to say, it's a smart strategy, especially if you back it up with meaningful analysis.

I use to come to HN because people argued intelligently. Now people want to justify dumb pandering comments. What a bummer.