Dr Hilary Jones apologises for ‘clumsy comparison’ between doctors with Covid and HIV

Dr Hilary Jones has apologised for a ‘clumsy comparison’ between HIV and Covid when discussing doctors transmitting the viruses to patients. 

The Good Morning Britain medical expert, who has been on hand to dissect the latest developments around the pandemic, opened his daily segment by referring to a chat he did yesterday, apologising for anyone he offended with his reference. 

During the discussion yesterday, he spoke about a period of time when HIV positive doctors couldn’t operate on patients, and compared it to doctors who may have contracted Covid saying he worried about the possibility of transmission. 

But he admitted that he wasn’t clear enough, and on today’s episode said: ‘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.’ 

Dr Hilary has been making regular appearances on GMB and Lorraine over the past year, when coronavirus first started affecting the UK. 

During that time he has been discussing the latest developments of the virus and breaking down medical jargon for viewers to understand.

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.

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