The announcement yesterday from the Scottish Government that young children are to be vaccinated en masse against swine flu will draw different responses from parents.

Some will be relieved that their offspring will be protected from the illness that has begun to spread through nurseries. Some may consider the illness too mild to warrant an immunisation programme, the first of its kind for small children in Scotland. Others will worry about the vaccine’s safety.

The decision to offer the jab to some 260,000 under-fives is based on strong scientific advice, supported by solid clinical evidence. This suggests that the risks associated with contracting swine flu outweigh considerably any perceived risk linked to the vaccine itself.

Most people, of all ages, who contract swine flu suffer a mild illness and recover quickly, but a small minority, including some young people without under­lying health issues, suffer complications. Recently two children in Scotland died from the virus within three days.

Pensioners, who are far more vulnerable to the normal winter flu virus, have some immunity to swine flu but younger people are at greater risk. Under-fives are being hospitalised with H1N1 at three or four times the rate of the rest of the population. On account of their size, small children are particularly vulnerable to pneumonia, one of the complications of swine flu.

There is an unwarranted history of distrust attached to vaccinating children. Many parents were dissuaded from having their children immunised against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) because of a perceived link with autism. Doubts remain, even though a connection has been discredited.

The swine flu vaccine has been carefully evaluated by both European regulators and the Department of Health. Their view is that parents who reject the vaccination place their children at greater risk than those who go ahead.

There is also a wider benefit from a mass vaccination programme. As the British Medical Journal reports today, school closures and prophylactic absenteeism (staying off work for fear of catching the virus) could have a much bigger impact on the British economy than the disease itself.

Being vaccinated not only offers protection to the indivi­dual, but is also in the national interest.