While it has to be confirmed whether influenza‐infected ferrets or indeed humans show similar responses to IFN treatment, this is to our knowledge the first time that IFNαβ‐driven immunopathology has been demonstrated to outweigh the protective effect of the IFN‐induced potent anti‐IAV protein Mx1 (Horisberger et al, 1983; Salomon et al, 2007). The gene discussed is IFNA1; the disease is influenza.