Unlike seasonal flu, the H1N1 flu continues to pose more problems for younger people, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said. “There are a higher attack rates and hospitalizations in younger adults and children,” she said, during a press conference held in July 2009.

A number of Peninsula High Schools reported incidents of swine flu, and today’s absenteeism associated with the H1Ni strain, amidst signs of a growing media panic about the “pandemic” on various City campuses is cause for concern.

New Scientist, reports instances of the H1N1 prior to 2008. “In 1977, an accidentally released mild H1N1 virus simply circulated alongside the existing flu, H3N2.”

Death toll in the US from 1958 “Asian” flu was approximately 69,800, according to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) quoted in Greene Jeffrey. Moline, Karen. [2006] (2006) The Bird Flu Pandemic. ISBN 0312360568.

Last month, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that, unlike seasonal flu, the new H1N1 flu strain attacks younger people and can be more severe and deadly in that group.