"they would have had 8-10mths of carnage till a vaccine was...

"they would have had 8-10mths of carnage till a vaccine was ready as per todays scenerio."

And there's no certainty that the vaccine will 1. do the trick and/or 2. that the virus won't mutate to undermine the vaccine's usefulness 3. whilst regular,seasonal flu strains continues to lurk in the background...

Conversely - there's a very strong chance that anti-virals such as relenza and LANI will remain effective.