In a study due out this week, Thomas Frieden, the head of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reveals that during the Spring in NYC "about 800,000 people—about 10% of New York City residents—got infected with the flu. That's a lot of people." In all, the virus killed 47 New Yorkers, less than 1% of those infected. But could this be just a prelude to something far worse? Dr. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, thinks so. A heavy report spearheaded by Varmus and the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology predicts that the swine flu could potentially kill between 30,000 and 90,000 Americans in the coming months, infect half of the population, and force some 1.8 million people into hospital ICUs. Frieden, however, thinks the report is over the top, and told C-SPAN, "Everything we've seen in the U.S... suggests we won't see that kind of number if the virus doesn't change." Who to trust? The Daily News could not track Varmus down for comment, probably because he's busy stocking up on canned goods and ammunition for his bunker. (Either that, or raising money to build a new MSKCC Swine Flu Research Wing.)