It would indeed be wonderful if concerns over artemisinin resistance were a false alarm, or that the current levels of resistance could not be exceeded.1 However, are we “wrong to be distracted” by increasing evidence of resistance to the key drug for the treatment of severe and uncomplicated falciparum malaria emerging from the very place where resistance to chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine emerged before? Our slow and ineffective responses to those disasters cost the lives of millions of people—mainly children in Africa. Only a small fraction of the world's malaria burden occurs in mainland South-East Asia, yet that is where the resistance comes from. In an increasingly interconnected world, ignoring the potential for rapid spread to infect India and Africa seems worse than unwise. That is why everything that can be done should be done to curb spread and eliminate foci of artemisinin resistance in Asia