Media attention turned on Chris Whitty’s family after a video emerged showing Whitty harassed by two members of the public.
Boris Johnson has condemned the behaviour towards England’s chief medical officer after a social media footage of two men following Whitty in a park surfaced on the internet.
Chris Whitty was a child when he lost his dad, who served as a British diplomat in Greece.
PM condemns behaviour towards Chris Whitty
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned the “despicable harassment” of Professor Chris Whitty. A social media clip shows that Whitty felt visibly uncomfortable when two men followed and filmed him in a park in London.
Johnson tweeted: “I’m shocked at seeing the despicable harassment of Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty. I condemn the behaviour of these thugs. Our hard-working public servants should not have to face this kind of intimidation on our streets and we will not tolerate it.”
New health secretary Sajid Javid also criticised the “appalling and totally unacceptable” incident, and said on Twitter: “The CMO works tirelessly on behalf of the country.
“We will not tolerate this sort of behaviour towards our public servants. The men behaving in this disgraceful way should be ashamed.”
Police officers continue to investigate the social media footage and the incident.
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Who was Chris Whitty’s dad Kenneth Whitty?
Kenneth worked as a diplomat at the British Embassy in Athens, Greece.
As reported by The New York Times, Kenneth died in a terrorist attack in 1984 after a man ambushed his car and shot him in the head three times. A Greek woman, who was in the car and working as a librarian for the British Council, was murdered during the attack.
Kenneth served as head of the British Council in Athens at the time and spent long periods of time working as a diplomat abroad.
Chris was a child when his father was assassinated and the CMO hasn’t publicly talked about his dad.
Kenneth Whitty: Family
Kenneth was married to his wife Susannah, who worked as a teacher. They had four sons together.
Apart from serving as England’s CMO, Chris Whitty is a practising NHS consultant and epidemiologist.
He graduated from Oxford University in 1991 and later received training in infectious diseases and tropical medicine.
Chris Whitty served as Professor of Public and International Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine before.
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