If say a plague bacterium (maybe there are better examples) became resistant to all available antibiotics and started spreading, it could cause a pandemic like the Black Death. Research on how to behaviorally reduce antibiotic use (e.g., reduce meat consumption, convince meat companies to not use antibiotics, reduce overprescription) and how to develop new antibiotics (AI could help), and advocacy of reducing antibiotic use could potentially be high impact.
Reducing antibiotic resistance
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If say a plague bacterium (maybe there are better examples) became resistant to all available antibiotics and started spreading, it could cause a pandemic like the Black Death. Research on how to behaviorally reduce antibiotic use (e.g., reduce meat consumption, convince meat companies to not use antibiotics, reduce overprescription) and how to develop new antibiotics (AI could help), and advocacy of reducing antibiotic use could potentially be high impact.