Strict germ theory (that a microbial pathogen is necessary and sufficient to produce illness) seems to me clearly false, and those influenza experiments are just one example
But the failure of strict germ theory doesn't rule out my modified germ theory, in which the animal must be in a state of ill health to be vulnerable to pathogenic contagion
The way to validate this experimentally would be a 4-group design, combining a health-reducing condition (eg nutrient deprivation or toxic exposure) with microbial exposure (and controls for each treatment variable)