Totally agree there's no way to quantify how often it happens, and while I will see providers make mistakes, most, if not all, know that antibiotics (for bacteria) aren't designed for viral infections but the placebo effect is real for some patients. People (patients and providers alike) sometimes feel more comfortable "doing something" meaning prescibing/taking a pill, even if unnecessary, instead of telling people to go home with just reassurance that things will just take time to improve on their own. Making things worse is you have places that allow patient demands to dictate the care they provide, so instead of recommending rest and supportive care, people end up getting a "Z-pack and a steroid shot" to make people happy and feel like something is being done while from the provider standpoint being something they can bill for. It's screwed all the way around. I See it all the time and then people end up wondering why they aren't getting better with antibiotics that aren't going to work anyway.