Regret the Error

A LETTER to the Editor from Dr Bryan Walpole in the Mercury on Tuesday, 10 June 2008, headed “Gay blood”, made a number of claims about the actions of Mr Bill Bowtell in relation to the policy of the then Australian government on HIV/Aids and in particular to the policy on gay men donating blood.
The Mercury accepts that the assertions in the letter in relation to Mr Bowtell, an expert in the field of HIV/AIDS policy, are false and have no basis in fact.
The Mercury accepts that Mr Bowtell was never a spokesman for gay men or a member or officeholder in any organisation that represented gay men. The Mercury accepts that Mr Bowtell believed that, given the circumstances that applied in the mid-1980s, the highest priority had to be given to the protection of the integrity of the blood supply, and that therefore homosexually active men should at that time be banned from donating blood.
The Mercury accepts that in fact Mr Bowtell’s position was the opposite of that asserted in Dr Walpole’s letter.
During his time as senior adviser to the federal minister for health from May 1983 to 1986, Mr Bowtell provided policy advice to the minister for health and the Australian Government on all aspects of HIV/AIDS policy. In 1984, Mr Bowtell advised the minister and the Australian Government that gay men should not donate blood so as to preserve the security and integrity of the blood supply.
Since 1983, Mr Bowtell has served with many Australian and international organisations concerned with the response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He is presently director of the HIV/AIDS Project at the Lowy Institute for International Policy and has an outstanding international reputation in the field.
The Mercury unreservedly apologises to Mr Bowtell for the hurt and damage caused to his professional reputation by the publication of the letter from Dr Bryan Walpole.