It's true that thousands of people die from the flu each year, however this thing going around is a completely different animal and theres reason governemtns are worried.
There's no vaccine for it. It's not killing off old people with weak immune systems, it kills young people where your immune system overreacts and then kills you. Roughly 1/10 people that catch it die.
Hopefully they can isolate it or it mutates into harmlessness.