I would like to see some antibiotics go over-the-counter, but I'm not medically-minded enough to figure out which ones.
No. Not only no, but HELL NO.
Or, you can go live on a little island in the middle of [censored] nowhere with all the antibiotics you ever want, with the rest of the people that want antibiotics to be OTC.
Sorry, now that I've got that rant out of the way, lemme explain why:
We've got a bad enough problem with people wanting antibiotics for VIRAL infections. Seriously. I've heard it a couple thousand times... "I'm not feeling well, I need antibiotics!" No, you've got the flu. You need rest, nutrition, supportive care, and lots of fluids. Or you've got a cold. Also not gonna get antibiotics.
And we've got way too many problem with medication resistant strains (aka superbugs) WITH antibiotics being prescription only. I mean, yeah, it sucks when you know you've got some kind of bacterial infection that you have to go to your doc, pay them, and then pay the pharmacy a bit of a steeper price for the antibiotics than if they were OTC. But here's the problem: Let's assume for a moment you get a bacterial infection: WHICH antibiotic is effective for the particular infection you have? Because if it's a lung infection, you're gonna need one type of antibiotic. A tooth infection? A different type. An intestinal infection, like e.coli? Yet another type of antibiotic. Because each particular class of antibiotics is effective against a specific type of bacteria. If you give penicillin to a bacteria that isn't really affected by penicillin, all you're gonna do is make that bug even more resistant to penicillin. And if by chance it happens to pass along that bit of genetic material that encodes for penicillin resistance to a bacteria that's not normally penicillin resistant? Guess what, you just created a new bacteria that IS penicillin resistant. And that is a Bad Thing
TM.
You ever want to cause a medical person to panic? Suggest over the counter antibiotics....
*shudder*