Health experts are explaining drug-resistant bacteria poorly

This week marks the first ever World Antibiotic Awareness Week—an effort to teach people about microbes that can withstand our most potent drugs and cause untreatable illnesses. The threat has certainly been getting a lot of media time: Headlines warn of millions of deaths, while health experts invoke an "apocalyptic" threat that's bigger than terrorism or climate change. But what happens when these drumbeats of doom reach the ears of listeners? To find out, The Wellcome Trust, a biomedical-research charity based in London, commissioned a consumer-research company to look at what people understand about antibiotics and how best to talk to them about the problem of resistance.