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of mercury year after year may place a person at increased risk of neurotoxicity later in life. The actual extent of this risk is hard to ascertain.
    We do know that risks accumulate throughout life and that the young, developing body is more sensitized to the damaging effects of toxic substances. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service, a federal agency, have issued a joint statement calling for the removal of mercury from all vaccines. Chronic, low-dose mercury exposure may cause subtle neurological abnormalities that rear their head later in life. Considering all the vaccines children get already, adding flu vaccine to the mix and giving it each year is something that we should have serious questions about—and indeed, the scientific literature has raised those questions.
    If we are going to advise giving a flu shot to everybody from infancy on, every single year, the long-term effects must be more closely examined. The flu vaccine itself has not yet been evaluated for carcinogenic potential, and animal reproductive studies over multiple years have not been performed—in other words, studies in animals testing whether the vaccine causes birth defects or developmental problems or even if it increases the risk of cancer.
    Known adverse reactions to the vaccine, according to the manufacturer, include arthralgia (joint pain), lymphadenopathy (swelling of lymph nodes), itching, vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels), and other events reflective of toxicity. Allergic reactions such as hives and anaphylaxis, neurological disorders such as neuritis, encephalitis, and optic neuritis, and—besides the previously mentioned Guillian-Barré syndrome—demyelenating disorders (such as multiple sclerosis) have also been temporally associated with influenza vaccine. There will likely be more connections made: in the ordinary life cycle of a drug, as time goes on more side effects are typically uncovered. Most recently, influenza vaccinations have been implicated as a trigger for Henoch-Schonlein purpura, a rare but serious disease that can cause kidney failure. 21
    Each person needs to decide the risk-to-benefit ratio for themselves and their own children, because serious complications and even death from a simple viral illness such as the flu can occur. Still, with the limited effectiveness of today’s vaccines, the benefits, even in high-risk groups, are slight.
    The medical community acknowledges that certain people are at greater risk of harm and death from the flu. Those with weakened immune systems are at increased risk when they catch an infection of any type. This group includes:
    â€¢ The elderly—those over seventy-five
    â€¢ Those with chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes, transplanted organs, or AIDS
    â€¢ Steroid-dependent individuals or those on other immunosuppressive drugs for autoimmune illness
    â€¢ Those with significant immunosuppression (such as people with AIDS or cancer)
    â€¢ Infants and toddlers under two years of age who were not breast-fed
    â€¢ Those who smoke cigarettes or whose food intake is primarily junk food and other high-calorie, low-nutrient fast foods or packaged foods
    In these groups, the slight reduction in influenza virulence for just a limited number of strains may be of benefit. This is not the case in healthy children or adults with normal immune function, however—especially if people are eating a nutritious diet and have adequate nutritional stores, including vitamin D.
    I prefer to feed my children in a manner that protects them against all diseases and simply allow their healthy immune systems to deal with the flu, should they get it. My four children, who now range in age from ten to twenty-four, almost never have been sick for more than a few days in their whole lives, never had an ear infection or needed an antibiotic, and never, to my recollection, ever got the flu. Maybe good nutrition had something to do