That “scientist friend” is full of shit. I googled “antibiotics new,” which that “scientist friend” didn’t do. Because that “scientist friend” doesn’t exist.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ientists-hit-pay-dirt/?utm_term=.60656ce9f980
https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/ten-new-antibiotics-6009164
He probably heard this a few years ago when it was actually true. To be fair, a lot of this stuff is out on the horizon and not yet FDA approved. But it's no longer true to say we're not going to have any antibiotics to deal with the increasingly drug resistant strains. In fact, last time I had any major need for an antibiotic (a really nasty strain of strep), the antibiotic prescribed was one that was only approved by the FDA in 1999.
It is true, though, that pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to prioritize antibiotics, though, because they're generally something you take a course of and you're done. It has to pay off within the limited window of patent protection. This is why stuff like fancy bellyache pills that you take every day, rather than change your diet, or boner pills, are incentivized.
The clear upcoming market gap in antibiotics, though, does appear finally to have kicked in. Because of the nature of the market, once these things come out, they're going to be absurdly expensive for a while, but they'll still beat croaking from some superbug.
The idea of primarying one of the House's most conservative Democrats from the left would be an excellent way to hitch your wagon to that narrative. If Wu & Wu could actually pull it off, or come close, they'd probably be media darlings.
And they'd be fucking detested by Democrats who aren't fucking insane. You can afford this kind of ideological purity testing when you're in charge of the House and Senate, have the White House, have 6-3 on the Supreme Court, and are in most of the state houses as well.
When you're already crying in the wilderness, the absolute last fucking thing you need is a nutcase like John Flynt driving you off even further into the forest of faggotry.