One of the scariest, most difficult-to-decide issues I’ve faced since becoming a mom has been the vaccine question. Our pediatrician told us on our very first visit with our precious newborn daughter in our arms: “If I gave each of you a million dollars and a year, and told one of you to research the case against vaccines, and the other to research the case for them, you’d both come back with an equal amount of material to support your arguments.”

Gulp.

And that’s the problem we’re facing again, right now, with the Swine Flu vaccine. It seems like every day I hear more and more conflicting views:

Pro: The vaccine is perfectly safe.
Con: It’s not safe; it hasn’t been tested enough.
Pro: It’s crazy not to use it.
Con: It supposedly has higher levels of mercury in it than other vaccines.

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Add to the debate that the media is over-hyping it as usual, while at the same time children seem more susceptible to this flu and sometimes with tragic results.

And it’s not just people like me (who are generally nervous about vaccines) struggling with this issue. It’s been an endless topic of conversation among my fellow parents everywhere I go, from my daughter’s elementary school to her ballet class to my online community of Twittering and blogging moms. We seem to be divided into three camps – those adamantly for it; those adamantly against it; and the rest of us who don’t know what to do.

Erin Kotecki Vest, mother of two and a journalist turned full-time blogger, sums up the “Are you crazy, you’re endangering not only your kids but mine,” school of thought in her recent blog post, “Just a quick rant about the piggy flu and vaccines.”

Quite bluntly, she writes:

“The next child that dies from swine flu could be your fault.”