Final answer:
True, microorganisms can naturally resist certain antimicrobials due to their inherent characteristics and evolutionary mechanisms such as mutation and horizontal gene transfer. Human practices like antibiotic overuse worsen this issue by providing selective pressure that drives the rapid development of resistance.
Step-by-step explanation:
True, some antimicrobials fail to kill or inhibit a pathogen because the microbe is naturally (intrinsically) resistant to it. Antimicrobial resistance arises due to the ability of microbes to evolve and adapt to the compounds, such as antibiotics, designed to inhibit or kill them. This natural resistance is part of the evolutionary process and can occur without human intervention, whilst in other instances, human activities such as overuse and misuse of antibiotics can accelerate the development of resistant strains.
Microorganisms have various mechanisms to gain resistance. These include mutating target sites, overproducing targets, employing enzymatic bypass, and horizontal gene transfer, where resistant traits are shared between bacteria. These resistance strategies allow some bacterial pathogens to become resistant to multiple antibiotics, sometimes even those that have not been overused.