Study finds overuse of antibiotics in COVID-19 patients

A study of more than 5,000 hospital admissions for COVID-19 found antibiotics were prescribed more than half the time, even though only a fifth of patients were suspected or found to have bacterial pneumonia. The Pew Charitable Trusts Antibiotic Resistance Project, which conducted the study, used data collected between February and July of 2020 at mostly midwestern hospitals. "The use of antibiotics during this pandemic has the potential to impede progress made in recent years to combat antibiotic resistance in the U.S.," the Pew researchers wrote. (Medpage Today article, 3/13/21)