Removing hard inquiries?

[Dan]

I recently discovered that my equifax report was merged with another individuals report. I have spoken to equifax and they have confirmed that it wasn't fraud but it was merged with another ssn. Equifax did remove all of the items that did not belong to me and corrected the merged reports. However, There are 69 inquiries in a short amount of time in which I have concluded that only 12 are mine. I understand that a few inquiries aren;t too bad but because there are 69 my score dropped significantly lower than it was the last time i saw my score. I do have a "fraud alert" and believe that these inquiries must be removed....Equifax had told me that they cannot be removed. I think something needs to be done...1st of all - I have a fraud alert and my report should not have been pulled without my verification, and 2nd - Equifax has confirmed that my report was merged with another ssn. Is there anything I can do?