I have actually seen at least one person literally compare it to the Stand. Because nothing says "genetically engineered pandemic that wipes out civilization as we know it" like "two dozen kids from Queens caught the flu over spring break. They're all fine now." One thing people forget about the 1918 flu is that it didn't just have an abmorally high mortality rate -- it also had what's estimated to be a 50% infection rate. It spread incredibly fast, and one of the reasons that millions of people died is that almost 20% of the worlds population was infected (also, there were no antibiotics to treat secondary infections then -- the flu pandemics in the 50s and 60s had a fraction of the mortality rate the 1918 pandemic did).

If people really want a terrifying potential pandemic to panic over, they ought to goolge antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis (or, preferably, not google it). Blaming the communists for being a threat to civilization as we know it instead of Mexico might not be quite as much fun, but hey, at least there's still a country they can accusingly point fingers at and warn people not to visit.