Health minister Ab Klink is now advising that children from six months to four years old get vaccinated for swine flu, or Mexican flu as it is referred to in the Netherlands. In doing so he is following the advice of the director of the health council, J.A. Knottnerus.

But the authorities are increasingly up against scare stories about the alleged danger of the flu vaccine that are rampant on the internet. Klink on Tuesday launched a counter-attack against the rumour mill. "The vaccine is safe," he said, "in the sense that the possible damage outweighs any risk. The stories on the internet are devoid of any scientific basis, while the vaccine has been scientifically tested."

Health council director Knottnerus said his decision to recommend vaccination for young children is based on the risk they might develop serious pneumonia. He expects deaths among small children from swine flu to remain very low.

Knottnerus also said the swine flu pandemic "will probably be less serious than we thought a couple a months ago".

Knottnerus: "The peak will probably be around New Year, but it will almost certainly be over by the end of January. I don't think we're looking at 30 percent of the population getting sick, as was said last summer. If we look at its progress I think this pandemic will develop like a normal winter flu. It will probably be closer to 10 percent. During a normal flu epidemic 5 to 10 percent of the people get sick."

Then why did you feel it was necessary to vaccinate small children? There has only been one death in that group so far.

"Yes, but there have been relatively many hospital admissions. A quarter of those are children. The pressure on children IC's (intensive care units) is high. They're still coping, but there may be problems if there is a peak, the pediatricians are saying."

What can you say to reassure parents of young children about the safety of the vaccine?

"By now the vaccine has been as thoroughly tested as a regular flu vaccine. I except it to be just as safe. We're not hearing alarming things from the general practitioners. Some people develop redness and pain where they were injected. Or they feel shivery for a couple of hours or a day at the most. That's all. Of course you can never rule out an exceptional side effect. Unfortunately some people take that as a reason to say: you see, they can't guarantee it's safe."

Does it bother you: the stream of rumours, especially on the internet?

"It's bizarre to read these stories. I don't mind debating with the facts, but so many of these stories are entirely baseless. I read somewhere that [health minister Ab] Klink and [national institute for public health director Roel] Coutinho and I are supposed to form the KKK, the Ku Klux Klan. We are called the "vaccine Nazis". It's frightening, when all we're doing is trying to prevent serious diseases. And we have done so very successfully in the past fifty years. The problem is that all this wrong information makes the people who need to be vaccinated insecure. My advice to them is to read the objective web sites of the national institute for public health and the health ministry."

The health ministry's dedicated swine flu web site is also available in English .