It's really strange. Even though H1N1 was designated as a pandemic, there was not nearly as much attention on it as currently on coronaviris. There definitely weren't all the business closures we are seeing today. At my day job, Human Resources wrote a few policies to help an employee with H1N1 but no cases were reported among our employees. I didn't stock up on groceries, continued to go to the office, continued to mystery shop, and lived my life exactly as I did when there was not a health emergency. So did everyone I knew.
On April 15, 2009, the first infection was identified in California, according to the CDC, and less than two weeks later, April 26, 2009, a US public health emergency was declared, one day after the World Health Organization had declared a public health emergency. On Nov. 12, 2009, the CDC published a report that estimated there had been between 14 million and 34 million H1N1 cases between April 17 and Oct. 17, 2009, and 2,500 to 6,000 H1N1-related deaths. The H1N1 2009 flu pandemic ultimately killed 12,000 Americans between April 12, 2009, to April 10, 2010 according to CDC estimates. The number of cases totaled an estimated 60.8 million people.