2026-04-05

Bug Report

The weekly intelligence briefing on the bacteria that are winning — and what's left in humanity's medicine cabinet.

Consumer-facing antimicrobial resistance intelligence — pathogen threat scorecards, drug pipeline tracking, resistance trend maps, weekly research digests, and "which antibiotics still work?" guides, all auto-generated from WHO, CDC, PubMed, and clinical trial data.

Niche Explored

Consumer-facing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) intelligence — translating the superbug crisis into accessible, data-driven content with pathogen scorecards, drug pipeline tracking, regional threat maps, and weekly research digests.

Why This Niche

The Numbers

39 million deaths projected from AMR between 2025-2050 (Lancet, Sept 2024 landmark study)
1.27 million deaths/year directly attributable to AMR already (2019 baseline)
10 million deaths/year by 2050 if unchecked — WHO projection
The Lancet study (published Sept 2024) was the first systematic global forecast → massive media coverage, public awareness spike
FDA reported 16% one-year increase in medically important antibiotic sales for farmed animals (2023→2024)
WHO calls it “the silent pandemic”

The Gap

Scientific literature is impenetrable to consumers
Government dashboards (GLASS, NARMS Now) are for researchers — terrible UX, no narrative
Existing consumer content is either fear-mongering clickbait OR too academic
No single site does: weekly pathogen updates + drug pipeline tracking + consumer action + beautiful visuals
Substack newsletters exist but are sporadic, text-only, not automated

Existing Competition

WHO GLASS Dashboard (worldhealthorg.shinyapps.io/glass-dashboard/) — raw data, researcher-facing, no narrative, ugly
CDC NARMS Now (wwwn.cdc.gov/NARMSNow/) — interactive data explorer for US food chain AMR, very technical
ResistanceMap (resistancemap.cddep.org) — CDDEP’s visualization tool, academic focus, static
CIDRAP AMR news (cidrap.umn.edu) — University of Minnesota center, good but academic tone, not consumer-friendly
Substack: “Antibiotics: The Dying Market” (privatemarketsnews) — investment angle, paid, sporadic
HERBIVORE CLUB (Substack) — animal farming angle only, advocacy tone
The Conversation — occasional AMR explainers, not dedicated, not automated
NO consumer-facing, data-driven, beautifully designed, auto-updating AMR site exists

Data Sources Found

Free Government APIs & Data

WHO GHO OData API — https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api/ — REST/JSON, AMR indicators by country/pathogen/year. Free, no key needed. Includes GLASS surveillance data.
CDC NARMS Now Interactive Data — https://wwwn.cdc.gov/NARMSNow/ — US food chain resistance data, downloadable CSV. Bacteria: Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli, Enterococcus from humans, retail meats, food animals.
FDA NARMS Integrated Data — https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/national-antimicrobial-resistance-monitoring-system/narms-now-integrated-data — downloadable datasets.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas API — https://api.store/eu-institutions-api/european-centre-for-disease-prevention-and-control-api/ — European AMR data, REST API.
PubMed E-utilities API — https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/ — search new AMR papers weekly, get abstracts, metadata. Free with API key (rate: 10 req/sec).
ClinicalTrials.gov API — search active antibiotic clinical trials, new drug pipeline status.
USDA FSIS NARMS data — https://www.fsis.usda.gov/science-data/data-sets-visualizations/microbiology/national-antimicrobial-resistance-monitoring — raw resistance data from meat inspections.

Academic/Research Databases

CARD (Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database) — https://card.mcmaster.ca/ — 8,582 ontology terms, 6,442 reference sequences. Research use free (commercial restricted). Background reference for pathogen profiles.
PATRIC/BV-BRC — Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center — genome-level AMR data.
WHO Essential Medicines List — tracks which antibiotics are “Watch” vs “Reserve” category.

News & Research Feeds

PubMed RSS — custom search feeds for AMR papers, auto-updating
WHO News RSS — AMR-tagged news releases
CIDRAP RSS — antimicrobial stewardship news feed
Google Scholar Alerts — programmable via scraping for new high-impact papers

SEO Analysis

“antibiotic resistance” — high volume (~40K monthly), high difficulty (70+), but content is academic
“superbug” — medium volume (~18K monthly), lower difficulty, very consumer-friendly term
“MRSA treatment” — high volume, health-intent, affiliate potential
“antibiotic resistance map” — low competition, high intent, visual content opportunity
“which antibiotics still work” — question keyword, essentially unserved
“superbug tracker” — virtually no competition, perfect for branded tool
Long-tail gold: “is [antibiotic name] still effective for [infection]” — hundreds of variations, all unserved
Content gap: Nobody is doing “state of the art” weekly AMR intelligence for consumers

Communities

r/microbiology — 424K members, AMR discussion frequent
r/medicine — healthcare professionals, AMR posts get high engagement
r/science — AMR papers regularly hit front page
r/collapse — doomsday angle, high engagement with AMR content
Effective Altruism Forum — AMR is a major EA cause area (biosecurity)
Twitter/X #AMR #AntibioticResistance — active research community, media amplification
Telegram/Discord science communities — growing
WHO World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) — annual November event, massive search spike

Image/Graphic Feasibility

Maps — country/regional AMR heatmaps from WHO data → excellent for AI generation with D3.js/Mapbox
Pathogen profiles — AI-illustrated bacteria with resistance “armor” → distinctive visual identity
Drug pipeline timelines — Gantt-style charts of antibiotics in development
Resistance trend charts — line/area charts showing resistance % over time by pathogen
Scorecards — letter-grade cards for pathogens (A=low threat → F=critical)
Infographics — “What still works against [pathogen]” visual guides
All highly automatable with chart libraries (Chart.js, D3) + AI image generation for hero images

Monetization Signals

AMR is a major pharmaceutical investment theme — sponsorship potential from diagnostics companies
Health literacy audience is high-value for health product affiliates
EA/philanthropy community actively funds AMR awareness — donation potential
Healthcare professionals would subscribe for digests — premium newsletter tier
Potential sponsors: rapid diagnostics companies (Cepheid, bioMérieux), health systems, public health orgs
Buy Me a Coffee / GitHub Sponsors — science communicators regularly earn $500-2K/mo from dedicated audiences
Newsletter premium tier — weekly deep-dive for healthcare professionals, $5-10/mo