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Regarding claims about a modified H5N1 influenza virus that could move via airborne droplets from ferrets to infect others nearby, "there is a misperceptionthat it would spread like wildfire," says Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. "We don't know the efficiency of its spread." Further, the modified virus is lethal for ferrets only when a "lot" is administered, he says. "If received via the aerosol route, we do not see severe disease [in ferrets]. We don't think it will be a virus that will kill half the world's [human] population." He and several others who are debating H5N1 risks spoke duringa special session convened as part of the 10th ASM Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting, held last February in Washington, D.C.