Antibiotics is LI exec's topic at Swiss forum

What if most, but not all, of the world became immune to antibiotics?

A frightening thought, but then again, Stanley Bergman, chief executive of Long Island's largest company, Melville-based dental equipment distributor Henry Schein Inc., is accustomed to tackling scary subjects.

Bergman, who often looks and sounds more like a university professor than a business executive, is headed back to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the professorial World Economic Forum, which starts Jan. 24. The topic on a panel on which Bergman will serve is hair-raising: "What If All Known Antibiotics Lost Their Effectiveness?"

A possibility? Yes, said Bergman in an interview Friday. "There's an overuse of antibiotics, and with overuse people are becoming immune," he said. "There's a feeling too much antibiotics are being fed to animals, and that gets into the meat people eat." Down the line, Bergman said, that could make humans immune.

Bergman has been going to the World Economic Forum since 2005. He has talked in the past about equally scary topics, including the possibility of a worldwide pandemic. Bergman's panel will include university presidents, physicians and government officials, although their names have not yet been officially released.

The forum is a place where one might see the likes of Bill Clinton and GeorgeSoros strolling around the picturesque village of Davos, which is about a two-hour drive into the countryside from the airport in Zurich.

The forum "gets a bad rap sometimes," Bergman said. Some people consider it elitist. "Some people fly in on their own private planes, but the substance is amazing," Bergman said. For the record, he will fly commercially.