Don't forget to follow the money, folks. Only politically acceptable research gets money, both public and private. And it's the media that decides what's politically acceptable, not scientists. Not a minor consideration. You'll note we are going through the same sh*t right now in a more acute way with COVID 19, which promises to kill merely a tithe of what H1N1 accounted for in its first year, but where was the media then?
For those who are more conspiratorial you can peel however many layers off that as you wish, but on the surface that's all it takes.