But this headline is getting clicks because of the initial mortality rate number, which is in ferrets and obviously not applicable to humans since the human who got it had only mild symptoms.
It was a series of overreactions in the media to studies like this one that led me to be skeptical of the news reporting about COVID in its early days. I came around, but a lot of others didn't. Overblown health scare headlines cause real harm for science communication.
Dosage and location of infection matter. The ferrets were given a high dose of virus and went on to pass it to others through the air. The farmworkers so far have gotten small droplets in the eye, and still this shows that the virus has mutated at least somewhat in humans since the bovine iteration, as only the human-mediated version was able to effectively attack mammalian lung cells. We are the pigs in this scenario. If you read the article, you'll see that was the point of testing on ferrets, not to see whether ferrets would die from it, nor to perform any kind of gain-of-function research.
What this shows is that the virus is able to jump the barrier to mammalian lung cells with a few iterations, and already has by way of some human exposure. There is no particular reason to think that a lung infection in humans wouldn't be 100% lethal as it is in ferrets or sea lions. So far, the only infections in humans in the US that we know of have been essentially relegated to the eyes. But it appears that the virus is primed for more than that now.
I'm not suggesting that the media go crazy causing a panic, or that the media do anything at all, since they only seem to inflame every situation. But looking at the data from this report, I think it is reasonable to assess that we're on a tragectory toward a highly lethal airborne H5 virus, and take appropriate steps to shore up vaccines and antiviral stocks.
It was a series of overreactions in the media to studies like this one that led me to be skeptical of the news reporting about COVID in its early days. I came around, but a lot of others didn't. Overblown health scare headlines cause real harm for science communication.