This seems like the same sort of pointless hand-wringing that attends every technology at its peak. There are any number of works in progress that could replace antibiotics. None of them have yet because they are not economically competitive. As that changes - because they either realize their potential to be much, much more effective, or because the cost of working antibiotics rises - then antibiotics will fade in favor of the next technology in line.
This is what happens to every technology. Yet people seem to forget, despite the evidence all around them, that they live in a world that changes rapidly due to the fact that many, many individuals are working on new and better ways to do everything. Periods of seeming stasis to the outside observer - such as the long use of antibiotics, which is really actually a continual hectic development of new types of the single class of item - only occur because economic conditions favor them. As soon as economic conditions favor another technology, it is developed and deployed from its prototypes pretty rapidly.
This is what happens to every technology. Yet people seem to forget, despite the evidence all around them, that they live in a world that changes rapidly due to the fact that many, many individuals are working on new and better ways to do everything. Periods of seeming stasis to the outside observer - such as the long use of antibiotics, which is really actually a continual hectic development of new types of the single class of item - only occur because economic conditions favor them. As soon as economic conditions favor another technology, it is developed and deployed from its prototypes pretty rapidly.