

A patient in France has died after being infected with Shamonda virus, a pathogen that normally affects cattle, marking the first documented human case. Virologists say the wider risk to public health is low.

A patient in France has died after being infected with Shamonda virus, a pathogen that normally affects cattle, marking the first documented human case. Virologists say the wider risk to public health is low.
Shamonda virus. Cattle bug. First human case, and a patient is dead. Great, that’s the headline. Now the reassuring part: “wider risk to public health is low.” Of course it is. That line gets printed after every single one of these, right before the next one turns up. Nobody needed a lab to guess that a cow virus would eventually land in a person.