8 Insane Things Celebrities Actually Believe Are Real Science

4. Jim Carrey Is An Anti-Vaxxer

Sigh. It always hurts to read those words.

A brief stroll through Carrey's twitter will probably be enough to give you an idea of his views on vaccines. The actor vehemently condemns the "poisoning" of our children (not the children!) with "mercury and aluminum in manditory vaccines."

He also says that, "They say mercury in fish is dangerous but forcing all of our children to be injected with mercury in thimerosol is no risk. Make sense?"

Yes, it's probably too much to ask that an anti-vaxxer actually knows what they're talking about, but in a few short tweets, Carrey manages to prove that he has literally no idea how vaccines work. He doesn't know, for example, that ethylmercury - which is a byproduct of thimerosal, used to preserve vaccines - is different to methylmercury - which is found in fish- and is found in completely negligible amounts. Neither does he know that aluminium is used as an adjuvant in vaccines to stimulate the immune system and make them more effective.

No, Carrey has fallen into the trap of being frightened by things he doesn't understand. Thankfully, anti-vaxxers are a dying breed, it's just a shame that they've got to take the confused and frightened down with them.