H1N1: Pandemic of Influenza or Epidemic of Fear?

Though most people will claim that they have never heard of an outbreak of the swine influenza the recent research provided states that there was an outbreak (pandemic) in 1976 starting, in the US, at Fort Dix, New Jersey. While it was hazardess then it was really the immunizations that caused the most damage, 1976. (http://www.capitalcentury.com/1976.html) Another case farther back in time is the pandemic of 1918, This was the worst of them all.(http://www.haverford.edu/biology/edwards/disease/viral_essays/warnervirus.htm) However taking into consideration that this was a time when our medical capabilities were still in the crucible it is hard to determine wheather or not this is a fair comparison to now (2009) where our medical expertise is excellent and still growing.
For those of you who do not know how a virus runs it attaches itself to a host cell and uses it's organs in order to produce more viral cells. This makes getting rid of the virus a challange so inoculations are used. This is putting a weak version of the virus into your body and letting your body recognize the virus and find a way to combat it. There is also a vaccine floating around there now that will also combat this strand of the influenza.(more infromation here: http://www.haverford.edu/biology/edwards/disease/viral_essays/warnervirus.htm)
So because of this I am seriously begining to wonder if we as americans are over-reacting to this pandemic and making it out to be more than it really is.