Which is an epidemic?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/30/livestock-antibiotics-superbugs_n_7672480.html?utm_hp_ref=world&ir=WorldPost

Each year, at least 23,000 Americans die from drug-resistant infections carried by so-called superbugs — pathogens that were once easily treatable but that can now withstand modern medicine’s full arsenal of antibiotics. And if recent forecasts are correct, it could get a lot worse.

Superbugs could in fact surpass cancer as a leading cause of death by 2050, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with a number of leading scientists, have warned that the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals is the driving force behind this threat to public health…

Predictably, a lot of businesses that depend on livestock are against the idea of phasing out antibiotics. Sanderson Farms, the nation’s third largest poultry producer, is one of the holdouts. “Frankly, after doing our homework, we do not plan to withdraw antibiotics from our program,” said Joe Sanderson Jr., chairman and CEO of the company, during a May 12 presentation…

Koci, too, said that scientists are “still at the very beginning stages of figuring out how to fully tap the power of what is going on inside the microbiome.” Some probiotic products on the market are “snake oil,” he said, while others only work when matched to the right situation…

(2013) Deaths from:

Prescription Analgesics: 16,235

Alcohol-Induced Deaths:  29,001

Motor vehicle traffic accidents:  33,804

Firearms:  33,636

Intentional Self-Harm (Suicide):  41,149

Now, which of these is considered an epidemic by the media and the CDC?  I’ll give you a hint — the one with the smallest number of deaths.