It's easy to sit behind a keyboard and dismiss the deaths of the nameless numbers and minimize the problem. Of course to do so is to still lessen peoples humanity by seeing the deaths and thinking they are meaningless and irrelevant.
Or to speak to faceless, nameless masses about the needs of the economy, the exaggeration and fear mongering. How about this, you go to to Italy, look at the faces of the parents, children, wives/husbands, family and friends of those who lost someone (or perhaps more than one) and tell them the same message. Tell them that the few deaths don't really mean anything (because, the flu is worse anyways) and that this problem should be ignored. Look those left behind in the eyes and see if you can feel the same way.
Fearmongering is not the answer, but neither is burying your head in the sand (or other places) and pretending there is no problem.
And to diminish the value and worth of those whose risks of getting this illness, and dying from it (such as myself and everyone in my household) is pure and simple cold heartedness and only looking out for ones self interests. To go on with life as usual is to ignore those people and put them in a lower class.