1918 may as well be 1818, the way the world has changed since the last big pandemic.
As scary as the natural mutations are, I'm much more inclined to think that the real danger comes from work being done to "medicinize" existing bugs. The effort to turn AIDS virus into an AIDS killer comes to mind.
While on the subject of flu, remember the time in 2004 when John Kerry saved us from George Bush's engineered flu outbreak with a terse round of criticism and self-righteous indignation? That was awesome. Children, the elederly, minorities and the working poor all saved by the people's candidate.
I'm way more scared of the DemoSocialistMarxistLyingLibs....and I ain't THAT scared of them.....
The big difference between the 1918 and 57/68 episodes was not only the mortality rate (~2% of those infected) but the impact on the 20-29 year old group. The robustness of the young's immune system sealed their doom as their body's response caused them to drown. 1 in 66 soldiers in the Army died during the few weeks of the pandemic.
We actually have changed for the worse. Society is much more fragile (how many folks grow / raise their own food etc.) and our ability to respond is not much better. There will be no vaccine,there wil not be even be enough of the uncertain treatment Tamiflu. Ask your local hosptital how much spare capability it maintains, especially respirators. Finally, assuming an infection rate of 30%, each 1% of mortality = ~1 million dead Americans.