H1N1 influenza A

Am I missing something?? At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist I have to say...

Why is everyone donning masks which doesn't stop the spread of 'swine flu' anyway (although I've never seen someone in a mask, so is that all media hype too??) and freaking out over the flu?!?!?! I understand we have no natural defense against H1N1, but it's only going to kill you if the common flu would. Did you know that 200,000 people a year are hospitalized for the common flu and 35,000 of those people sadly don't make it through flu season? And those figures only apply to the United States. There are 9 confirmed deaths from H1N1 and 658 cases that span across 16 countries. I don't understand why people are freaking out and I feel like I'm missing something. This is why I refuse to watch or read the news very often and when I do watch I look around in the neighborhood I'm in and talk to other people about their geographic locations to see if they see anything the news is talking about where they live. 9 times out of 10 it's just desperate attempts by the media to gain viewers.

Don't believe the hype.