Worrying about the swine flu virus

The spreading swine flu (or the less catchy official name, H1N1, in order not to unsult our pig-cousins) is something to consider and pre-emptively plan about, but it is not something to panic about, something that the press at least seemed to do in the start of the epidemic (A Danish newspaper had a cover-page last week about 15,000 will die...). The media may have toned down their panicky-talk since people in general are more easy-going and resilient to get on with life than the press and politicians think, but still people worry.
A pandemic is not about people dying from the virus, but about the speed that it spreads - it could be a pretty harmless virus. This one seems to spread pretty fast, and many may be infected. The danger of spread of such a new virus is that it may mutate or recombine to be more dangerous. Many people day every year of flu, and this one may not be different, except in the fact that perhaps for the first time in history, humanity has never been better prepared! Mass communications, international cooperation and intricate knowledge of virus-strains has given us the upper hand against the little bugger! We are facing an elusive enemy, but I will not worry more (or less) than I worry about the many other relevant risks in our world!