Iceland executive apologises after “causing distress” with false HIV claim
Richard Walker, Executive Chair of supermarket chain Iceland, has apologised after spreading misinformation about HIV transmission.
In an op-ed for the Mail Online in reference to shoplifting, Walker claimed that three members of staff had contracted HIV after needle attacks.
The original article was published online (15 September) and has since been amended (21 September) to include the following note: “Since this article was first 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.” Walker has taken to Twitter to apologise, saying “my comment piece on shoplifting published by the Mail Online on 15 September was a draft article that I believed had been superseded by a video interview. “As I correctly stated in both the draft article and the video interview, threats of violence against our store colleagues by shoplifters are sadly an everyday occurrence, and the weapons deployed to reinforce these threats regularly include knives, screwdrivers, hammers and hypodermic needles. “However, the claim in the draft article that three of our store colleagues are HIV positive as a result of needle attacks was made in error.
I have learnt a lot over the last 10 days, and spoken to professionals doing amazing work in this area.” Walker continued: “I am told such needlestick occurrences are vanishingly rare and have not happened for many years.
