3 ms·

Its a topic that comes up again and again. We are getting resistance against modern antibiotics. There are a ton of old antibiotics that have been out of use fo

Its a topic that comes up again and again. We are getting resistance against modern antibiotics. There are a ton of old antibiotics that have been out of use for decades that should be retested as possible weapons. Evolving resistance comes at a cost for bacteria and over time they might loose resistance against previous antibiotics. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00551/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2014.0055... The problem is no pharmaceutical wants to spend money on qualifying an out of patent antibiotic that can be copied by any generics manufacturer. We need a joint governmental founding initiative across the eu and us and any other countries to fund qualification of old antibiotics as well as developing new ones.

oa335 4y ago
> Evolving resistance comes at a cost for bacteria and over time they might loose resistance against previous antibiotics. This is known as the "ecological fallacy". > reversion to sensitivity is neither an immediate nor necessary outcome of selection simply because a resistant pathogen is no longer in an antibiotic-laden environment [1] [1] "Why Do Antibiotics Exist" - https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.01966-21 https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.01966-21
- oa335 4y ago
  My mistake, this is not an example of “ecological fallacy”, but instead a line of reasoning that explains the assumptions that led to an “ecological fallacy” type of error.
- Fomite 4y ago
  ...that is not how I've ever heard "the ecological fallacy" used, and this is what I do for a living.
  - oa335 4y ago
    What is your line of work and how is concept of “the ecological fallacy” used there?
    - Fomite 4y ago
      Epidemiology and disease ecology, particularly of antimicrobial resistant pathogens. The Wikipedia entry for it gives the definition I've always seen: "An ecological fallacy is a formal fallacy in the interpretation of statistical data that occurs when inferences about the nature of individuals are deduced from inferences about the group to which those individuals belong."

oa335 4y ago

> Evolving resistance comes at a cost for bacteria and over time they might loose resistance against previous antibiotics. This is known as the "ecological fallacy". > reversion to sensitivity is neither an immediate nor necessary outcome of selection simply because a resistant pathogen is no longer in an antibiotic-laden environment [1] [1] "Why Do Antibiotics Exist" - https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.01966-21 https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.01966-21

oa335 4y ago
My mistake, this is not an example of “ecological fallacy”, but instead a line of reasoning that explains the assumptions that led to an “ecological fallacy” type of error.
Fomite 4y ago
...that is not how I've ever heard "the ecological fallacy" used, and this is what I do for a living.
- oa335 4y ago
  What is your line of work and how is concept of “the ecological fallacy” used there?
  - Fomite 4y ago
    Epidemiology and disease ecology, particularly of antimicrobial resistant pathogens. The Wikipedia entry for it gives the definition I've always seen: "An ecological fallacy is a formal fallacy in the interpretation of statistical data that occurs when inferences about the nature of individuals are deduced from inferences about the group to which those individuals belong."