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The CDC announced this week that millions in the US contract ‘super germs’ and 23,000 die each year, but isn’t their outdated antibiotic-and germ-focused disease model entirely to blame for this growing nightmare?

A new report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns about antibiotic overuse and the resultant rise of ‘super-bugs,’ establishing for the first time different ‘threat levels’ for each type of drug resistant bacteria.

Titled,

Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States, 2013, the report states: “Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections.”

The report acknowledged that, “[M]ost deaths related to antibiotic resistance happen in healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing homes,” and the estimates are based on “conservative assumptions and are likely minimum estimates.”

The report also offers a new pathogen grading system reminiscent of homeland security’s grading of terrorism threats, but instead of red, orange or yellow, the CDC is using “urgent,” “serious” and “concerning.”