Jonathan Van-Tam tells Covid inquiry his family received death threats during pandemic

One of the country’s top scientists received “extremely hateful messages” during the pandemic, including threats to his family about “having their throats cut”, the UK Covid inquiry has heard.

Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam said the hate mail, which led to the police getting involved, made him consider stepping down from his role as England’s deputy chief medical officer.

Sir Jonathan, who left the post at the end of March last year, said on Wednesday that while his job involved huge workloads and stress, he “did not expect my family to be threatened with having their throats cut”.