-  More than 70% agree that Congress, doctors and medical groups (e.g., the American Academy of Pediatrics) should take responsibility for ensuring vaccines do not contain mercury.

-  80% of respondents and 84% of parents are willing to pay the $2.50 additional cost for a mercury-free flu shot.

Also, at the end of the survey is a very interesting statement and answer:

"Mercury in childhood vaccines has played a role in the current autism epidemic"

Agree            31%
Disagree        17%
Not Sure        52%

My guess is that the same survey administered today would generate an even higher "agree" than 31%. I guess we're not so fringe after all.

Also, what follows is from Dr. Mercola's site and provides some additional information regarding the flu shot:

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Back in 2005, The Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that all children between 6 months and 5 years old receive flu shots each year. Now they have expanded their guidelines to include children up to 18 years, which means everyone except those between the ages of 19-49, who are in good health, are urged to get a flu shot.

It should come as no surprise to find out that a majority of the ACIP members who came up with these guidelines have financial ties to the vaccine industry, and stand to gain personally for every additional person getting a yearly injection. It's actually the only explanation that makes any sense for recommendations as insane as these.

Three Reasons to Reconsider Flu Shots

There are three major reasons why this government push to vaccinate 84 percent of the U.S. population with a yearly flu vaccine is so incomprehensible:
 
1. The majority of flu shots contain 25 micrograms of mercury (HERE); an amount considered unsafe for anyone weighing less than 550 pounds! And which groups are most sensitive to the neurological damage that has been associated with mercury? Infants, children, and the elderly (HERE.)

2.  No studies have conclusively proven that flu shots prevent flu-related deaths among the elderly, yet this is one of the key groups to which they're pushed (HERE.)

3. If you get a flu shot, you can still get the flu (or flu-like symptoms). This is because it only protects against certain strains, and it's anyone's guess which flu viruses will be in your area.

So why would you take a flu shot – EVERY YEAR -- that has NEVER been proven to be effective, that can give you the very illness you're trying to prevent, and has potential long-term side effects that are far worse than the flu itself?

The powers that be have done an excellent job of instilling fear into the population so they believe that they must get a shot to stay healthy, but the simple reality is it's doing you more harm than good.

And, even if the flu vaccine could effectively prevent the flu, there have been several examples in past years where government health officials have chosen the incorrect influenza strains for that year's vaccine.  In 2004, the National Vaccine Information Center(HERE) described how CDC officials told everyone to line up for a flu shot that didn't even contain the influenza strain causing most of the flu that year (HERE.)

Two-Thirds of This Year's Flu Vaccines Contain a Full-Dose of Mercury
According to Dr. Donald Miller, MD, two-thirds of this year's flu vaccines contain 25 micrograms of thimerosal. Thimerosal is 49 percent mercury by weight (HERE.)

Each dose of these flu vaccines contains more than 250 times the Environmental Protection Agency's safety limit for mercury.

By now, most people are well aware that children and fetuses are most at risk of damage from this neurotoxin, as their brains are still developing. Yet the CDC still recommends that children over 6 months, and pregnant women, receive the flu vaccine each year.
In addition to mercury, flu vaccines also contain other toxic or hazardous ingredients like:

• Formaldehyde -- a known cancer-causing agent
• Aluminum -- a neurotoxin that has been linked to Alzheimer's disease
• Triton X-100 -- a detergent
• Phenol (carbolic acid)
• Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
• Various antibiotics: neomycin, streptomycin, gentamicin – which can cause allergic reactions in some people

The Evidence Against Flu Vaccines

For those of you who are still unconvinced, know that there's plenty of scientific evidence available to back up the recommendation to avoid flu vaccines – if nothing else, then for the simple reason that they don't work, and don't offer any real benefit to offset their inherent health risks. For example:

• A brand new study published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine (HERE) found that vaccinating young children against the flu had no impact on flu-related hospitalizations or doctor visits during two recent flu seasons. The researchers concluded that "significant influenza vaccine effectiveness could not be demonstrated for any season, age, or setting" examined.

• A study published in the Lancet just two months ago (HERE) found that influenza vaccination was NOT associated with a reduced risk of pneumonia in older people. This supports a study done five years ago, published in The New England Journal of Medicine (HERE.)

• Research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (HERE) last month also confirms that there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza and pneumonia, despite the fact that vaccination coverage among the elderly has increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent now.

•  Last year, researchers with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institutes of Health published this conclusion (HERE) in the Lancet Infectious Diseases: "We conclude that frailty selection bias and use of non-specific endpoints such as all-cause mortality have led cohort studies to greatly exaggerate vaccine benefits."
 
• A large-scale, systematic review of 51 studies, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in 2006 (HERE,) found no evidence that the flu vaccine is any more effective than a placebo in children. The studies involved 260,000 children, age 6 to 23 months.

J.B. Handley is co-founder of Generation Rescue and a contributor to Age of Autism.