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Resident (bio)chemical engineer checking in.

Cytokine storms are what caused a majority of the deaths back in 1918. I don't know the relation to other flu pandemics, but I do remember reading that the CDC says that this flu strain is closer in composition to the seasonal flu, meaning that it does NOT cause a cytokine storm in the body. What is causing the deaths in Mexico is still unknown, which is part of the reason this strain is considered dangerous ("whatever we don't know we must fear").

As for those people who keep asking what's so "special" about this flu, considering it hasn't even approached the number of deaths that the seasonal flu causes, it primarily has to do with the fact that no one knows what exactly this flu does. It is close to the seasonal flu in structure, but it's not. It's fatal in Mexico, but not anywhere else (toddler in Houston notwithstanding). It's very apparent that it is spread via human-human contact. If a solution to quell the outbreak isn't made soon, then when the second wave hits, as it looks more and more likely, more and more people will be infected, perhaps to a larger number of people than the typical seasonal flu infects, due to the general populace not being adequately protected from it, either via vaccination or proper cleaning. If that becomes a reality, then there exists the likelihood that even more people will die from it as a result. The issue of why is this such a big deal doesn't have to do with what is happening right now, but what could very well happen six or eight months from now.