Very interesting read. I'm having trouble finding updated information. All I can find is speculation back from April or early May. I can't seem to find anything that can even come close to conclusively saying that the 1918 strain is close to the current swine flu strain. Also, it seems like the problem arises from the another infection attacking the body after the damage from the hyperactivity being done.
Lots of speculation on this, but minimal science unfortunately.
The reality is that certain strains do seem to preferentially impact young, otherwise healthy people. 1918 is the classic example, but there have been others. None, of course, have been anything on the scale of the Spanish Flu.
The fear this year was that H1N1 would operate similarly, especially given minimal immunity in human populations (immunologically it's pretty new). The speed that it swept through Mexico heightened those fears, but we should have realized early on that the relatively few deaths signalled that H1N1 clinically looks like a "normal" influenza A.
I've seen probably 20 cases in the last two months. None have been anything special.
Remember that 30,000+ people die every year from the flu in the U.S. People will die of H1N1. But right now there's no indication that your friends and neighbors are going to keeling over any time soon.