LAST EDITED ON 10-05-12 AT 06:52 PM (EST)Read:
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry.
This was about the 1918 flu pandemic, and after reading it, you will not be shy about getting the shot.
It killed an estimated 40 million worldwide, and the virus that hit then was not much different (and could recur) from that deadly mutation. They were stacking bodies in the streets of cities, much like they did during the middle ages in the Black Plague.
Very scary. We probably all had ancestors (no matter where in the world we lived) who died then. And it's effect on the terms of the treaty signed after WWI (the Treaty of Versailles, which set the stage for WWII) is startling. We are still living with how that flu epidemic changed borders and history.
There are other accounts also, and they are probably as good, but this one floored me.