In the UK we were getting 100,000 new cases a week, but that's declined over the last couple of weeks down to 25,000 new cases. I think we are ahead of the curve compared to most countries, and we had a big jump in July which probably corresponds to your predicted "major outbreak", where it went from 100s to 100s of thousands. Only 44 deaths from that total.

But yes, we expect a lot of people to get it and we have, eg, streamlined the distribution of Tamiflu. Being more infectious means you are more likely to get it, but it doesn't mean you are more likely to die if you do get it.

I expect to get it; it's not academic in that sense. Reports of the relative mildness come from health officials. They are comparing it to real flu, rather than "man flu" which is usually just a bad cold. It'll be worse than a cold; you get fever, vomiting etc. It's not the end of civilisation unless it mutates, and as far as I can tell there's no reason to think it will. Here's an article supporting that view: NHS. Quote:

• Based on the pattern of spread for 14 different influenza pandemics over the past 500 years, there is little evidence to support the likelihood of a second or third more lethal wave of H1N1 influenza.

A lot more people will get it, and some tiny fraction will die, which will be sad for those that knew them, but for the rest of us life goes on.