--- title: Jenny McCarthy and HIV: Kissing Charlie Sheen description: From spreading fibs about vaccines to stoking fears about HIV canonical: https://time.com/4120500/jenny-mccarthy-hiv-sheen/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-19T21:48:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:46:49.464Z article:section: Health og:title: Jenny McCarthy Wrong Again—This Time on HIV og:description: From spreading fibs about vaccines to stoking fears about HIV og:url: https://time.com/4120500/jenny-mccarthy-hiv-sheen/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc99fde6b1770ee05/698871ef0a4a2235169c7244/jennymccarthy.jpg?branch=production&width=427&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 427 og:image:height: 240 og:image:alt: Jenny McCarthy's streak: zero for science og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jenny McCarthy Wrong Again—This Time on HIV twitter:description: From spreading fibs about vaccines to stoking fears about HIV twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc99fde6b1770ee05/698871ef0a4a2235169c7244/jennymccarthy.jpg?branch=production&width=427&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jenny McCarthy Wrong Again—This Time on HIV > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Nov 19, 2015 9:48 PM UTC  Jenny McCarthy's streak: zero for science Jenny McCarthy's streak: zero for science Cindy Ord; Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Nov 19, 2015 9:48 PM UTC One of the best things about America is that we can all say exactly what we choose. And one of the worst things about America is, well, that we can all say exactly what we choose. That’s especially true when grossly misinformed people with very large megaphones take advantage of that liberty. Which brings us to Jenny McCarthy. McCarthy has spoken in the past about [the imaginary link between vaccines and autism](http://time.com/60416/jenny-mccarthy-anti-vaccine-whitewash/). Now, she is being equally irresponsible and alarmist about how HIV is spread. McCarthy took her bow as AIDS commentator on Nov. 19 on her radio show _Dirty, Sexy, Funny_—which, OK, tells you up front that you’re not exactly getting the BBC News Hour. McCarthy’s beef concerned her appearance on the show _Two and a Half Men_, in which she played Charlie Sheen’s love interest and, in the course of that role, was required to exchange a kiss with her costar. Sheen, of course, [recently announced that he is HIV positive;](http://time.com/4115924/charlie-sheen-hiv-postive/) McCarthy learned of the news when the rest of the world did—not before. (Sheen’s representatives claim he had not yet been infected when McCarthy appeared on his show.) McCarthy acknowledges that HIV is not transmissible through kissing (except in the very rare instance in which blood is exchanged in the mouth). But she goes on to say that the kiss caused her feelings of unease anyway, or as she framed it, “I go, like, _Ick, ugh, that’s not fair and scary_.” The audio is [here](http://jezebel.com/charlie-sheens-former-co-worker-jenny-mccarthy-on-his-h-1743441924). McCarthy went on to raise the possibility of criminal liability for Sheen’s failure to disclose his HIV status, but did so through the venerable device of claiming that she _wasn’t_ raising the possibility of criminal liability for Sheen’s failure to disclose his HIV status. “There would be some type of, I don’t want to say criminal interest,” she said, “but I don’t even know what to say about that.” McCarthy is not entirely without a grievance here. She points out rightly that she and other actors are required to sign forms disclosing if they carry the herpes virus and to list any medications they are taking for the condition. That at least raises the question of why HIV disclosure isn’t required too—though, again, kissing can indeed be a vector for transmission of herpes, while it is not for HIV. And it is fair too to acknowledge that even in the era of antiretroviral medications, which for many people make HIV nothing more than a chronic, manageable condition, there is still a great deal of fear surrounding the disease. But it remains true all the same that any danger Sheen posed to McCarthy was essentially imaginary. And yet McCarthy has gone public with her unfounded fears—or at least her expedient umbrage—all the same. Another celebrity in a similar situation—one who had not spent years committing the high moral crime of terrifying parents into denying their children the protection of routine vaccination—might have earned more public understanding for any unease she felt over exchanging an onscreen kiss with Sheen. But whatever credibility McCarthy might have had as a spokeswoman, as an advocate for parents and children, and certainly as a commentator on public health, has long since been destroyed by her own reckless hand. With that went any legitimate claim on the public’s sympathies. McCarthy has lately gone dark on the topic of vaccines—driven to long overdue silence by a backlash against such wanton rumor-mongering. 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