Can't argue with your assertion.
But this particular death has no bearing on it. In parts of high desert New Mexico, plague is endemic. It's never been fully eradicated from the animal population.
Usually, there are a few cases every year.
The area around the small town of Tesuque, NM (about 5 miles north of Santa Fe) is considered by epidemiologists to be the global epicenter of Bubonic Plague.
Fortunately, it's generally isolated to infected fleas on rodents (Rabbits, Kangaroo Rats, Rocky Mountain Ground Squirrels [often mistaken for a small Chipmunk], and Deer Mice), and pretty much only crosses species when humans make the mistake of messing with fleabitten (hence the term) carriers.
A big problem occurs when someone gets it, and then travels somewhere else where the doctors aren't familiar with it and then dies before the proper diagnosis is made in time (as happened to a hiker from Boston years ago). If they're in a major population center, and the disease goes “pneumonic”, and can be transmitted from human to human by aspiration, then it's big trouble.
The fleas will jump off in swarms when their rodent host dies, and are attracted to the nearest warm-blooded creature. If you're close enough to see that happen, you're too close for your own good. I learned as a little boy in Northern NM not to ever, ever, ever handle any wild rodent in any way. Never have, never will. Not even cute little bunnies that would fit nicely in my crock pot. A classmate of mine got it and survived - messing with a “Chipmunk”. She's lucky.
One of my parent's friends was denied a visa to Egypt because his passport home of record was Tesuque, NM, and somehow the Egyptian health authorities knew about the implications.