Prof. Sir Chris Whitty has cautioned that the pandemic's threats against independent experts could compromise future disaster response efforts.
Sir Chris, the chief medical officer of England, said in testimony for the Covid public inquiry that threats and abuse directed at experts had been "extremely concerning.".
A man who approached Sir Chris in a London park in January 2022 received an eight-week sentence.
A second had their sentence suspended.
When the two men were being investigated, the court heard testimony about how one man, Jonathan Chew, 24, began filming Sir Chris on his phone while another, Lewis Hughes, 24, put him in a headlock.
The video, which lasted for about 20 seconds and was widely shared on social media, showed the pair laughing as Sir Chris struggled to escape.
During the attack in the summer of 2021, England's chief medical officer escaped without harm.
Along with the incident, Sir Chris and other people have described being harassed on social media and being yelled at in public.
In his testimony to the inquiry, Sir Chris stated: "We should be very clear in saying that society greatly values the work of these people [experts and scientists], who put in a lot of effort. ".
He noted that it was frequently given without compensation and that academic releases at universities were becoming more stringent.
Baroness Hallett, the chair of the inquiry, stated that she was "astonished and sorry" about what had occurred.
She said, "It's wrong for so many reasons, but I do know how distressing it can be," after Sir Chris finished testifying on Thursday regarding how well prepared the UK was for the pandemic.
"I'd like to think that people would think twice before engaging in distressing acts that are unnecessary, but of course they never do.
"There are numerous ways to express different viewpoints. Why must there be interpersonal violence?
Throughout the remainder of his testimony, Sir Chris stated that the UK's inability to quickly scale up testing was one of its major weaknesses.
Additionally, he called the national lockdown "very radical" and the "very big new idea" of the Covid pandemic.
"It was an extremely significant social intervention with significant economic and social repercussions. ".
After complaints that there wasn't enough diversity of opinion within the group, Sir Chris also defended the government scientific advisory group Sage, which he co-chaired during the pandemic.
For instance, there were no experts in the social or economic spheres.
The addition of a variety of different experts, according to Sir Chris, would have made it too "unwieldy.".
He argued that a different mechanism should be used to address the societal and economic effects of a pandemic separately.
In the meantime, Sir Patrick Vallance, who served as the government's chief scientific advisor throughout the pandemic, expressed "regret" over how long it frequently took for Sage research to be published.
I think it's important to share scientific advice because it's good for all of us, he said.
It ought to be constantly subject to "comment, challenge, and scrutiny," he continued.
