Iceland executive apologises for false HIV claim
"I obviously never had any intention of stigmatising people with HIV or causing distress"
The Executive Chair of the supermarket Iceland has apologised after spreading misinformation about HIV transmission.
Richard Walker recently wrote an op-ed for the Mail Online regarding shoplifting in stores. In that, he claimed three staff members had contracted HIV after needle attacks.
His comments were quickly and sharply condemned by the community. The HIV charities The Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and National AIDS Trust both called for an apology.
Posting on X on Monday (25 September) Walker said it was “a draft article that I believed had been superseded by a video interview.”
He went on to say that the claim regarding HIV transmission “was made in error.”
Walker added he’d learned a lot over recent days after speaking to professionals “doing amazing work in this area.”
“I am therefore naturally very sorry that the draft article contained this information,” the Iceland executive continued. “We immediately asked the Mail Online to amend its article, which has now been done, and quickly secured the removal of the claim from other media outlets.
“I obviously never had any intention of stigmatising people with HIV or causing distress, and I apologise to anyone who feels that they were adversely affected by this.”
Richard Angell, from THT, then posted “Thank you for acknowledging the error and coming on a journey.”
Similarly, the National AIDS Trust thanked Walker “for putting the record straight”. The charity also offered to work with Iceland to help challenge HIV stigma.
The op-ed was first published on 15 September. It then took six days for the false claim to be removed by the Mail Online.
The article now bears the following note:
“Since this article was published, Iceland have clarified that they provided information to Mail Online in error regarding staff being infected with HIV and the article has been revised accordingly.”