Preparing for antimicrobial resistance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic: The vision and “social science” mission of the INAMRSS network

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of the urgent need to improve the design of health systems, as well as the practical implementation of new strategies and technical solutions to better prepare for future pandemics. These preparations must also consider harms secondary to the pandemic, including the resulting effects on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). While drug-resistant infections pose a well-known and severe threat to human and animal health, the COVID-19 pandemic is compounding this already problematic situation. Recent regulatory interventions bring hope that we will not be as unprepared in facing this threat. Moreover, public and private initiatives promoting the development of new antimicrobial treatments, such as the recent AMR Action Fund, will most likely provide a few years of breathing room for innovation to ensure there is a path for new antimicrobials to be developed and delivered to patients in need. But, as important as they are, they will only partly compensate for the unresolved, fundamental problems. Moreover, and most importantly, such initiatives do not change the underlying social, cultural, and economic causes and challenges of antimicrobial resistance on a more sustainable basis. (Less)