Tinkering immunity: healthcare at the interface of antibiotics and resistant microbial lifetimes

Antibiotics cure bacterial infections by eradicating bacteria. When they do so, they do not discriminate against vital bacteria that we host in our bodies for a healthy immune system. Moreover, every encounter between antibiotics and microbes is an opportunity for microbial life to develop resistance to our shrinking antibiotic resources. With the consumption of these once seemingly silver bullet antibiotic solutions, the human gut microbiota becomes a fragile home to antibiotic resistant bacteria, compromising immunity and health. This paper explores the biosocial manifestations of immunity in an environment where multiple human and more-than-human lifetimes collide. What happens when the afterlives of antibiotics become embedded in our bodies? The theoretical framework of the research is rooted in medical anthropology. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Istanbul, Turkey, and qualitative interviews with doctors, pharmacists and patients in an unfolding pandemic, this study shows how healthcare and maintaining immunity becomes a matter of adaptive tinkering through medicines and foods.