This is an interesting article. The economic and biological forces at work here are fascinating. Clearly, antibiotics and new antibiotics are vital tools in med

This is an interesting article. The economic and biological forces at work here are fascinating. Clearly, antibiotics and new antibiotics are vital tools in medicine (yes, over-prescription is bad). "The infection spread, and doctors scheduled surgery to amputate the thumb. His doctor prescribed one last antibiotic but only after complaining about its cost and warning that Dr. Bright’s insurance might not cover it. Within hours, the infection began to improve and the amputation was canceled." If the only issue was cost, then it's necessary to compare this to the cost of using other less effective antibiotics and a trip to emergency room, scheduling a surgery, and lost time / productivity of the patient, etc.