Comments on: Supermarket To Offer Free Antibiotics

Publix Supermarkets Will Make 7 Commonly Prescribed Antibiotics Available For Free

[cyinzl8r]

you people would complain about a free lunch. LOL

[kiwi_chick]

I believe you are right rational_1. How on earth anyone could glean that you didn't need a prescription for the antibiotics from the above story is beyond me. Maybe some stores could give away reading glasses...nah...that probably wouldn't help either.

[ralan40]

great, now people can create superviruses through misuse of antibiotics...and at no personal cost to themselves

[puzzler125]

Basically it just shows you how cheap they are to manufacture if they can give them away! (In other words, they're not losing much money by making them "free" just not making as much as they would have.)

[hypnotoad72]

A lovely thought, but won't this hasten antibiotic-resistant strains?

Understandable... amoxicillin has been useless on me for... decades. And I'm only 35. ;-) So try the free ones first, but when you find they're worthless, you'll still have to try the others... plus by then the infection may have worsened.

[ozone-baby]

In most cases antibiotics are the cheapest meds prescribed. And they are over prescribed especially in children. Most doctors who prescribe antibiotics to children do it to placate the parents and to make THEM feel better not the child. I am not saying they do not have their uses because of course they do. BUT if you are going to give away meds for free how about the ones people need to LIVE. Like the elderly who have to choose between groceries and heart meds.

[rational_1]

I think the key here is that the antibiotics will be freely available, but only with a prescription. This should mitigate concerns about over-use leading to a spread of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. It's always been incumbent on physicians to resist placating patients with viral diseases by prescribing them antibiotics (which do nothing in those cases). Nothing really changes. Perhaps the public just needs to become better informed on the proper use of antibiotics and that they are useless against viruses.

[slim1h2o]

The next news as a result will be a nationwide epidemic of MSRA. If ever a governmental department needed sorting out it is the FDA, this is just plain stupid.
Posted by drinuk at 09:55 AM : Aug 07, 2007

I agree totally,.....The same can be said of the CDC, Apparently they have issues also. I wonder why you can't comment on that article?

[drinuk]

What a joke this is !! They tell bugs are becoming resistant to antibiotics because of their overuse and now they are going to give them away. It also reveals the extent to which Big Pharma have been ripping of the health systems in charging ridiculous prices for these pills.

The next news as a result will be a nationwide epidemic of MSRA. If ever a governmental department needed sorting out it is the FDA, this is just plain stupid.

[mswolfestock]

This will just lead to abuse of antibiotics, and people who take too many antibiotics will then become sick with antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacteria. They'll end up having to spend lots of money on a long hospital stay where they don't give anything away for free. It will just end up being another burden on tax-payers when all of these people end up getting sick - most of them probably don't have any insurance.