Did anyone here other than Damaera actually read the article? The flu in 1918 that killed 40million - 100 million people had a death rate of only 1%. So far, this flu has a death rate of around 6%.
By your own argument, though, that 6% isn't nearly as weighty as the 1% because of the immense difference in sample size. There's nowhere near the same number of people affected by this outbreak of H1N1 as there was in the other outbreak you mentioned, and, even then, the majority of confirmed cases leading to death are still coming out of Mexico, where conditions (including the response of those infected) may not necessarily match those in the US and Canada, where this strain has also taken hold in select areas. If adherence to treatment there is low and the majority of confirmed infections is there, then it almost seems expected that the rate of cases leading to death would be higher. After all, if there were, say, 1000 cases, 900 of which are in Mexico, and 60 people there died, that's 6%, right there. Small sample size, a handful of lethal cases where treatment rates are poor, and some basic math give you a rate that seems high, but is nowhere near as damning as 1% of 100 million.
The flu, with proper anti-pyretic and anti-inflammatory treatment, as well as rest and a steady intake of fluids, is very beatable; the only outstanding feature of this strain is that it wasn't included in most of the vaccination programs back in the fall, as it wasn't one of the more prevalent strains last spring. That aside, it is no more or less virulent than the other strains that are endemic in other parts of the world and continue to claim lives due to lack of treatment or poor compliance to prescribed measures.
If people exercise common sense, the infections will not spread nearly as rapidly.
EDIT - According to Wikipedia, there are only 240 laboratory-confirmed cases, and 9 "suspected" deaths. I'm not going to count "probable" infections, because, by the very definition of that phrase, the symptoms could be easily caused by other infections or disorders, and I'm not one for caving to the fear-mongering that "well, maybe" will cause in this kind of setting. Whatever the case, that's 3.75% of confirmed cases leading to suspected deaths according to those numbers.
