Antimicrobials: Handle with care, united to preserve antimicrobials Antimicrobials: Handle with care, united to preserve antimicrobials Co-chairs of the Group of Friends of AMR, WHO, UN Foundation, BCUN 17 December 2020 Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends, This year, COVID-19 has captured the world's attention, and rightly so. Antimicrobial resistance doesn’t usually capture headlines in the same way, but it should. AMR threatens to unwind a century of medical progress, and send us back to the pre-antibiotic era, when routine infections could mean death. This global threat is the result of systems failing across and between sectors around the world. It cannot be addressed by one sector or one nation alone.