I’m in GA and had my son at the Doc’s today, they said the same thing. As with all flu, if you are immune compromised it will hit you harder, but then again that is with just about any illness.
I have read up quite a bit over the last three years about how a virulant pandmic flu operates and that otherwise good advice just isn't true for the pandemic type when it does hit.
Now, this flu is coming late and may resurface in the fall for a second cycle. So I am by no means saying "this is the big one, Elizabeth" like Fred Sanford.
But, the pandemic flues like the Spanish Flu that was avian/pig in its mutation cycle, hit the strong and healthy the hardest for the high mortality outcome.
As I understand it the healthy immune system responds to the strong virus with a strong flood of secretions and lungs virtually fill up. Full respirators are one of the tools for when this happens in other diseases, the problem is we are short by a factor of 200 to 1.
Look up a reaction called a "Cytokine Storm" read this article: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/352/18/1839