PLANTING

a palm tree a few weeks ago, i gouged myself on a spike. i thought nothing of it until a few days later i had a swollen, throbbing thumb. a course of antibiotics cleared it up. Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies has again warned that with rising antibiotic resistance we are rapidly moving to an era when a scratch or a tooth abscess could be a death sentence. well, i have an idea. Public trust in the pharmaceutical industry is at rock bottom after a series of scandals and rising profits. to win back the public, why doesn’t Big Pharma pour some of those profits into an initiative to develop new antibiotics — and help guarantee the future of the human race.