I’m curious, what does “about to” mean to you? To me, it means sometime in the next few weeks or maybe a month or two.
It means he’s jumping the gun, but the phenomenon is still a “plausible”.
Counterfactors:
I have read that the immune system of birds differs from that of mammals.
The birds are packed together 24x7 in conditions reminiscent of a Japanese subway car. Not so applicable to all human settlements.