Students protest flu vaccine

Sott.net
Ryan Wood
Ball State News Online
February 3, 2009

A group of Ball State University students are worried a preservative found in a flu vaccine meant to keep you healthy could lead to harmful side effects.

Tony Farmer, president of Ball State's Truth Movement, has been leading his group in a protest against the use of thimerosal, a preservative found in some flu vaccines. Farmer says multiple studies indicate thimerosal, used in the flu vaccine Fluzone, can lead to Alzheimer's disease and autism.

Farmer believes the evidence found in the study is convincing, but not enough is being done to rid Fluzone of the potentially harmful preservative.

"The problem is, most people don't examine the evidence either because the FDA has convinced them it doesn't exist," Farmer wrote in an e-mail to DayWatch. "Some are putting more trust in their government than in their own eyes."

Fluzone is one of two flu vaccines offered at the Health Center. The other, FluMist, is $13 more expensive.