Well, it's too early (in the morning) to write a long post, but I'll summarize some of my points of view: in my country there is the flu, of course, and it's said that the new one has replaced the traditional one, as expected. In fact, it has already happened along the history: a new, mutant type of flu substitutes the previous one... there's nothing strange about it. In our country, next Monday there will be the first vaccines ready for some people first (pregnant, for instance), and later for more people... not everybody, but a significant part of the population.
Well, that's the situation. What I think is: what the great thing is, if it has already been stated that this flu is even less dangerous than the previous one??? Yes, unluckily people dies, but it did in bigger number with the old, dissappeared virus. The temperature is higher now, but it lasts less time: the old flue could last two weeks, this one "only" one week. Some apparently young and healthy people had had complications now and even had died... but didn't it happened with the old flu, without all the media messing about it? Well, Spanish speakers perhaps had seen a video about it... I usually take this type of media very carefully, but I think that video has a lot of reason: it says it all (or almost all) is about drug industry and money... It already happened with the "chicken flu" (I don't know what name had it in English). In US it was said that the chicken flu could kill some million of people, and Tamiflu was sold all around the country. Absolutely nobody died... Who is one of the owners of the Tamiflu drug industry? Donald Rumsfeld... I suppose you already know he was very important in the government... And, with all the hurry to make that vaccine (and make loads of money with it), some steps has not been forgotten, but speeded too much. With the chichen flu a lot of people suffered sever (and long-life) health problems because of that. Why not to think it can happen again? (I know I don't want to get the vaccine... I prefer to be infected, in fact!)
Well, to sum all it up: I believe the flu is important, as important than the last one. If you get it, go home, rest a lot, drink a lot of liquid, and don't panic!! Your body will be ready to expel next flu virus if it tries to infect you again... But, as it even happens, it will mutate and you'll get ill again, as it happened since the beginning of times.
So, Siren, I do believe you must not be worry so much, really... I'm not sure I've been as clear as I wanted, but I tried. A last thing is that, at least in Spain, it has been said that masks are not proven to offer any real protection, so another thing to worry not!!
PS. You can believe or not believe the media, the official one or the extra-official one. But what it has really been said by the health autorities lately, at least in Spain, is that they thought the flu was going to be worst than it really is now, and they recognized too much alarmism.
