>>It’s hard to know how many it will kill this winter.<<
It’s winter where your article takes place. Where are all the deaths?
They are drumming up a crisis. Remember, this flu has not only been around for almost a year by Christmas, but also has a component of the same flu we got as kids. That’s why seniors are not high on the list of vaccines. They have immunities. LOTS of people have already built immunities to this.
There is also the fact that the farther away a flu gets from ground zero, the weaker it is. A flu is not designed to kill a host. It is designed to perpetuate itself. If the flu killed everyone who got it, the flu would die out quickly. People are going to get sick. Those who get secondary infections could be in trouble. We have antibiotics to treat secondary infections.
If people were dropping like flies in the southern hemisphere, I’d be concerned. They aren’t. They are getting the flu, it sucks but they recover.