"In fact, it is prolonged exposure to antibiotics that provides the selective pressure to drive antimicrobial resistance; hence, longer courses are more likely

"In fact, it is prolonged exposure to antibiotics that provides the selective pressure to drive antimicrobial resistance; hence, longer courses are more likely to result in the emergence of resistant bacteria" I always wondered about this, but I accepted explanations to the contrary (which IIRC were something like "keeping the overall population of bacteria low so a recurrence of the infection, now with a larger portion of resistant bacteria, wouldn't give the opportunity for the resistant bacteria to spread") It always seemed like a pseudoscience explanation, but things can be complicated at the highly detailed level, so I assumed there were more complicated mechanisms / statistics / science that underlay the "take the whole course". Alas the media will probably do a bunch of sensationalist "the scientists don't know anything" stories typical of American anti-intellectualism.