Well, no it doesn't. Everything is speculation according to this book, but there are several theories that it had been around for about 2 years but it wasn't very virulent. Something happened in 1918 that caused it to mutate and strike everywhere at once. They say it hit several dozen cities around the globe within about 1 week. The first outbreak of the first wave in the US occured along the east coast.
If we follow the timeline of the 1918 pandemic, we are somewhere between wave 1 and wave 2.
In 1918 the initial reports of the outbreak occured May to June 1918, gaining significant attention only because it significantly slowed the war training efforts. I have no idea how many deaths there were in either wave. The first wave was very light though, almost nobody died.
The second wave started in September 1918, and hit all over the world almost simultaneously. It had a fatality rate of 6-10%, with as many as 100 million potential dead. They specifically state that there was no rioting, no real public reaction. The mainly noticible effect was people had 2 reactions - stay at home for a year, or go out and party like the world was ending.
The initial outbreak of Novel H1N1 was sometime in early May or possibly late April 2009. So if the trend is the same (they are both swine based influenza with a novel lack of resistance or immunity just like 1918) then we can expect a national shutdown sometime in September when the dying starts.