ONE of the country’s top medics has revealed that thugs threatened to cut the throats of his family during the pandemic.
Sir Jonathan Van-Tam told the Covid Inquiry he nearly quit over the horrific abuse.
The married dad-of-three was deputy chief medical officer to Sir Chris Whitty.
Sir Jonathan, known as JVT, admitted his 16-hour days in the pandemic were “horrendous”.
He went on: “I might have expected that it was my responsibility to bear that kind of workload.
“I did not expect my family to be threatened with having their throats cut.
“I did not expect the police to have to say ‘we will you move out for a few days while we look at this’. But it was a very stressful time indeed.
“But let me thank the vast majority of the public, who are supportive and grateful.”
A virus expert, he told the inquiry he felt “on instinct” that the UK was “in for a bad time”.
Also in evidence yesterday, Sir Chris said ‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson was “particularly insistent” on sending his views directly to 10 Downing Street.
His infamous model suggesting 500,000 could die has been credited with spooking ministers into the first lockdown in 2020.
Sir Chris called Prof Ferguson’s behaviour “potentially confusing” after the inquiry heard then-PM Boris Johnson was often “bamboozled” by science.
Meanwhile Sir Jonathan said when he first heard about the Eat Out to Help Out scheme on TV “it didn’t feel sensible”.