Don't think the intent here is to downplay. Just to remember. You decide what you want to do with information shown to you.
And currently a large part of the public thinks it is a regular flu. So showing them an example of something else that was scary that didn't amount to anything (compared to what we are risking now) is helping exactly how?
No one is disputing the higher death rates but somehow has this feeling that this won't be as bad as other flu incidents?
I felt this was a good reminder that what many fear is going to be true. That 60-70% of population is likely going to be infected. Because that is what happened in the past. It's not going to go away in a few weeks.