 It's that dreaded time of year on campus flu season but BU is offering flu shots to students on select dates. This year the vaccine is four strains instead of three so you get more protection. With flues and colds common during this time of year it can be difficult to distinguish what a flu is. Cold will kind of develop over time you might start getting a runny nose get a sore throat but the flu if you have it you'll know it because you will get body aches you'll get a fever it'll hit you pretty hard pretty soon. There are many misconceptions preventing people from getting the flu shot. One common misconception that I hear from students is they think that you can actually get the flu by getting the flu vaccine but the flu vaccine that we give is inactivated virus so you can't possibly get the flu from getting the vaccine. The other I think issue is people think that mercury in vaccines may cause autism that is also false and the flu vaccines that we're giving today they don't have any preservatives meaning they don't have any mercury in them. According to the CDC the flu vaccination is associated with the 71 percent reduction in flu related hospitalizations amongst adults. In Boston it's like it goes to minus 20 degrees so we have a new over here it's been just two months for us so you know to prevent because of the cold we are here to take the flu shot. While it is false that cold weather can cause the flu the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found that the flu virus has a special cold resistant coating this and the fact that people stay in enclosed spaces during cold weather makes for a perfect storm. You may be carrying the flu and not know it and be spreading it to other people you want to protect everybody and not just yourself. Don't worry if you missed out on the October 28th flu clinic there will be a couple more clinics just be on the lookout in your BU inbox. For BU News Service I'm Karishma Desai.