A lot of doomsaying here, but a big part of what we’re seeing now is the scientific progress we’ve made to more accurately sequence viruses in the moment. Novel flu variants are not a new thing, influenza has been passing back and forth between animals and mutating for thousands of years and has killed tens of millions of people. 30 or even 15 years ago this case, which is likely to be a one-off, would have gone completely unnoticed. The patient also sounds like they might have struggled to survive any flu variant given their comorbid diagnoses