So, I’m also a layman. I have been following bird flu news articles since the massive wild bird deaths started.
For what it’s worth, it didn’t just start jumping to mammals recently. It’s been infecting aquatic mammals for a while. I believe European minks and goats were infected even before that. Luckily, the virus doesn’t currently seem to be infecting the lungs of cattle. Similarly, the one human who contracted it recently had no respiratory symptoms. It seems he touched a cow and then touched his eye, causing the spread.
Based on articles I’ve read, it won’t be a problem for humans until the virus infects the upper respiratory tracts of humans easily.
However, with cattle farmers seemingly taking no precautions other than not milking sick cows (and I’m not even sure I believe that, honestly), it may just be a matter of time before that happens. Every infected cow is a place for the virus to spread and mutate.
Don’t forget, the process of touching the cows to hook them up to the machines is a disease vector. And they seem to be taking no precautions for that.