Dr Hilary Jones has apologised after falsely claiming that doctors with HIV can't operate on patients.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain today, Dr Hilary admitted to making a "clumsy comparison" between doctors with Covid-19 and HIV.
Yesterday, Dr Hilary had been discussing with hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid health care professionals refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine, agreeing that they should not be allowed to work if they did so in case they transmitted the virus onto their patient.
But, he used an unfortunate comparison to explain his valid point.
Dr Hilary had said: "If you've got staff who are potentially able to transmit the virus to you, they shouldn't be in that hospital. Would you expect a surgeon to operate on you if you're HIV positive? Would you expect a surgeon to operate on you if they are Hepatitis B positive? No, they're not allowed to."
Charity National AIDS Trust furiously hit back, retweeting the clip as they branded Dr Hilary's comments "disappointing".
They tweeted: "Surgeons living with #HIV can work safely. @PHE_UK guidance on healthcare workers and HIV clearly states this. #ItsASin showed us the results of HIV stigma. We're disappointed to see @DrHilaryJones perpetuate it on @GMB. Let's stay educated so #HIV never stands in the way."
And Dr Hilary addressed his remarks today, telling hosts Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard: "I just want to return to something that we talked about yesterday, we were talking about healthcare professionals and doctors in hospitals with a potential transmissible infection that they’re carrying that could put their patients at risk, and I made an error.
"I made a clumsy comparison with people carrying Covid with people who are living with HIV or Hepatitis B not being able to operate on patients.
"They can, of course, they have since 2013 been able to operate and carry out surgical procedures, providing their safeguarding procedures and prevention and infection control are in place to do this.
"This is the Public Health England advice, it’s the department of health advice and no reason they can’t operate, because when they’re treated and their viral load is almost zero they can do this safely.
"I was talking about back in the day when they weren’t treated and I need to make that clear and apologise to anybody who was offended by that."
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV
