From what a doctor friend told me, H1N1 isn't actually any more deadly than the flu that comes around every year. A large number of people die from flu every year and there isn't a particularly big deal made of that.

The issue is that H1N1 has the potential to mutate into something which is extremely virulent and deadly. They want to minimise the number of people who have it because of this since the more people that have it, the higher chance that there will be this mutation.