Think about the last time you had a cold.

Your nose is stuffy, your sinusisic,

you feel like you just got hit by a truck.

You go see your doctor, see if there's something you can take for it.

Maybe an antibiotic.

I would say most commonly when people are requesting antibiotics,

but they don't need them.

It's probably for an acute respiratory infection or illness.

Dr. Robin Reister is a primary care physician in Texas.

She knows this scene all too well.

So in the winter time, it is probably at least once the session.

Somebody will come in saying, you know, every year I get sick around the winter time and

I just need to get my Z-pack and then I get better.

People like to use that word.

I think it makes it sound more fun than a scary antibiotic like a zithromycin.

Z-pack sounds like a little candy, like another name for pez.

And that's part of the problem.

People like the pop-up I can't.

Anytime they get one of those pesky colds or a flu,

it feels like a little extra security.

And besides, every time you've taken them, the cold definitely went away.

Except that's what colds do.

...