Drug-resistant bacteria and other microbes are a serious and growing public health threat. Data out today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quantifies the annual toll of these superbugs, and it’s not looking good.

On Tuesday, the CDC released the latest version of its Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) Threats Report. The agency estimates that roughly 10 million infections and more than 50,000 deaths in the United States are now caused by drug-resistant bacteria and fungi every year—estimates well above the previous figures released in 2019. Though there has been some success at curbing certain drug-resistant infections, substantially more progress is needed to prevent the approaching antimicrobial apocalypse, outside experts say.

“These numbers are alarming by any measure but are particularly sobering when infectious diseases physicians connect real patients with these statistics in their everyday experience,” said Wendy Armstrong, a clinician and president of the Infectious Diseases Society…