In comparison to sars and bird flu, how bad is swine flu?

Less severe: As of now swine flu is difficult to transmit to humans, therefore is less of a direct health threat, at present unless one has prolonged exposure to pigs. The virus has some biological similarities to a flu virus that caused a very deadly flu pandemic in 1918 which killed 50 million people. The fear is a mutation in the swine flu virus could enable it to more easily infect humans, as in 1918.

Not as bad: While sars and bird flu have high mortality and it is much lower with swine flu. The outcome depends on individual susceptibility and general health status. There is finite mortality with swine flu as well.