It's not that it's necessarily more severe, but it is more severe to different parts of the population than the normal flu is.
No... the normal, or "seasonal" flu, is more severe to different parts of the population. Therefore it would stand to reason this is too. This isn't any more severe to different parts of the population that the normal flu is. It's a crap shoot.
Normal flu kills some 36,000 people a year (from the CDC page). It would stand to reason that a few people are going to die from this one too. Such is life.
I got a flu vaccine 3 or 4 years ago from my company and I still got the flu that year. They can't predict how the seasonal flu is going to manifest itself so at best it's guess work. You get a vaccine based on last year's flu. That doesn't mean it's going to protect you from this year's flu.
I'm an unhealthy slob. The people that seem to do the worst are those with no immune systems or those with over zealous immune systems. I'll take my chances.