I'm not trying to discredit Sunfish's points, but this may help show some perspective.
From today's Sydney Morning Herald letters page:
Unhealthy scaremongering
As someone who has studied the 1918-19 pandemic (and other influenza pandemics) I was appalled to see Mathew Varidel's letter (May 25), which only pours fuel on the bonfires of fear. The salient lesson of 1918 is that deaths were concentrated in countries where health and sanitary standards were low (half the toll was from India), in hospitals where large numbers of patients were concentrated (such as American military hospitals) and in groups of people already suffering respiratory problems.
Influenza deaths in Western countries declined across the 20th century, including in pandemics, probably due to improved overall health care. We have seen nothing yet which requires correction of the view that American influenza poses less threat to life in Western nations than normal seasonal influenza. It is good to be vigilant, but biomedical science is no place for scaremongering.
Dr Paul Foley Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Randwick