And as anyone with a child recently placed into daycare in a major city will tell you, what happens is the kid gets the sniffles from a cold virus/whatever, and it turns into a sore throat, then a bacterial sinus infection, then a ear infection, and at this point the bacterial infections at the daycare are resistant to antibiotics, so they end up gradually rolling down the sickness hill until the doctor prescribes something strong enough to knock it out.

And god forbid, mom/dad get it. I almost died from some crap my daughter brought home because the doctor sent me home twice with a "suck it up" attitude (after I had been "sucking it up" for nearly two months), until I ended up in the emergency room at 1AM with pneumonia, a massively elevated temp, and a pleural effusion that was so painful I could barely breath. The doctor that sent me home called a couple days later (because they took blood samples and some swabs) with a "we have to see you now" call, at which point I was like, yah thanks a lot for nothing...

In most cases a secondary infection is going to be more of an annoyance than a danger, so for otherwise healthy people it probably makes sense to treat a secondary infection when it appears.

AFAIK, antibiotics are usually only prescribed prophylactically to sensitive populations or for apparent viral infections with a particularly elevated risk (with frequency or severity) from secondary infection.

I heard that even from a veterinarian who prescribed antibiotic to my cat with acute viral infection, in a course of complex treatment. Now I wonder was antibiotic really necessary.