I’m going to chime in here as a healthcare professional. One of the most dangerous creatures on earth is an educated quack. Put “doctor” in front of your name-be it an actual PhD or DO or some other doctor- and gullible people believe that this makes you somehow more credible. Credibility comes with citation of studies done with the scientific method. Hypothesize, create a double-blind study, look at the results, publish them so others can refute/replicate your results. All of the pseudo-scientific claims about Covid-19 or any other medical malady must be backed up by facts, and treated using evidenced-based-practice. When faced with any wild medical claim, I say “cite your sources” The usual response is “Facebook, my brother, a guy I met in a bar…” My favorite source was “Jim Carrey says vaccines…”. Wow your scientific source is an actor with no medical degree who’s claim to fame is a move titled “Dumb and Dumber” That sure blows away the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, etc. I just back away slowly from these people. You can’t win an intellectual fight with someone like that.
Interesting person to focus on when complaining about quacks. What exactly is Jim Carrey saying that upsets you so much?
Thank you. Has he said anything about the current Covid vaccinations?
Not on the first page of google results.
Although I’m likewise opposed to quacks exploiting irrelevant doctoral degrees to fake some medical credibility, I agree with other posters here that Jim Carrey isn’t really a relevant example of that phenomenon.
Although Carrey has touted antivax ninnyism, AFAICT he hasn’t claimed any medical expertise and thus can’t be considered an “educated quack”. (Given that he apparently left school at sixteen, I’m not sure how far he can even be called “educated” in an academic sense.) And AFAIK Carrey has maintained public silence so far about the COVID-19 vaccine,
Since film studios are legally permitted to require COVID vaccinations for cast and crew, I’d bet my left nut if I had a left nut that Carrey had to get the jab for his work on the forthcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie.
So if any antivaxxer tries to argue against COVID vaccination by citing Jim Carrey, just tell them “Pfft, Carrey has never had a word to say against the COVID vaccine and in fact he got vaccinated himself in order to keep working in Hollywood. And look, he’s fine.” Let them try to disprove that, but dollars to donuts they’ll never be able to.
Lee Merritt, an orthopedist and one of “America’s Frontline Doctors” is a fine example of an educated quack.
She relates that she had contact with a patient vaccinated against Covid-19, and a week later got a nosebleed that stopped after she took ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. That can’t be a coincidence, she believes - that patient must have shed nasty vaccine cooties on her.
It’s gotta be true 'cause she’s a Doctor.
She’s an orthopedist, though. They don’t have the reputation as the smartest of doctors.
You’d think neurosurgeons would be smarter. But that field has given us Ben Carson and Michael Egnor (creationists), and Russell Blalock (antivaxer and chemtrails conspiracy theorist).
It’s just a job ultimately.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work in several neurology departments and have met people of a whole range of apparent smarts, the one thing they had in common was being dedicated and hard-working.
Surgery should not be about Dr House style “thinking outside of the box”, it needs to be as systematic and rigorous as possible.
And beyond that, of course we have to say that even smart people can hold silly opinions. Indeed in some cases a strong intellect can be used to think up superficially compelling defences for a flawed position.
That’s why the invention of the scientific method was so revolutionary. “Smart guy must be right” is what humans naturally default to, and it’s a horrible way of learning about nature.