Mortality rate of covid19 for people with cancer is estimated at over 6%. My mom has cancer. Every person who gets covid19 but thinks "oh it wasn't that bad" makes it just a little more likely that people like my mom will contract it.

The reason to not panic but be prepared is that humanity has zero immunity to this virus, whereas there's lots of group immunity to influenza. I'm not sure why it's so hard for people to see the issue here.

It's significantly more deadly than the flu. But also, people should probably take influenza more seriously anyways.