My point is this: when the first reports came in of so many young people in the US becoming ill with swine flu (like the students in NYC), people worried that this would be like the 1918 flu, which struck & killed mostly healthy young people. However, these kids recovered quickly. The two people who did die had chronic underlying conditions; one was an infant & the other a pregnant woman, both groups which are vulnerable to the “regular flu”. Most of those hospitalized also have chronic conditions. This pattern of infection indicates that the swine flu here is similar to the regular flu, which mostly kills the very young, old, and those with other health issues. (That’s why the CDC recommends that people in those groups be immunized–and yes, they reommend that pregnant women be immunized too).
Although any death is unfortunate, it is reassuring that this flu is not so different from the flu that we are already used to.