The flu does have potential to spread a lot, and probably kill a few million people (which isn't really that much), and I do believe that some people should get the vaccine (people working in health care, kids, parents of young kids...). To limit its spreading more than to avoid death, really... Also being sick for a couple of days still sucks a lot. Why no one you know had real problems with H1N1? Because even if it's very virulent, it's very unlikely that you die from it. For each death there are probably thousands of people who got infected without a problem. The whole coffin / FEMA thing... check your sources well, some of it might be true, but I remember reading other sources that debunked most of that crap. Some videos are apparently showing a pic off google earth of something totally unrelated. Though it does make sense for a government to keep these kinds of things... If they didn't, and something DID happen (massive zombie invasion or whatever), people would complain that they were unprepared I don't think anyone was vaccinated without their consent, or the consent of their parent... If such stories appear somewhere, there's a good chance that the parents are just seeking for attention (balloon boy anyone? ) Yes, there is a pandemic going on... But a pandemic means "lots of infections", not "lots of deaths". I don't see how a government conspiracy would make sense since this is pretty global now. Yes, the whole thing was overhyped by the media, and by friends of pharmaceutical companies. Some people are filling their pockets with billions right now because of this whole story. tl;dr: No conspiracy, nothing to worry about, move along now