Who is Chris Whitty?
THE BIGGEST STORIES ACROSS BRISTOL IN YOUR INBOX Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. SIGN UP Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice  Professor Chris Whitty is a physician and epidemiologist who currently serves as England's chief medical officer, the UK government's chief medical advisor and the chief scientific advisor to the health department. He has played a key role in the UK's response to the coronavirus pandemic, often appearing alongside the prime minister and the government's chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance at televised briefings in Downing Street. Footage of Prof Whitty being harassed in London's St James's Park emerged this morning and has been condemned by politicians on both sides of the House of Commons. The matter is also being investigated by the Metropolitan Police. Prof Whitty, 55, spent much of his childhood in Nigeria. His father, a diplomat, was killed by militants in Athens when Whitty was a teenager. He trained as a doctor at the University of Oxford and went on to lead the malaria unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Prof Whitty's first role with the government was as the chief scientific advisor to the Department for International Development from 2009. In this position, he played a leading role in the UK's response to the West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2014. At the time of the Salisbury Novichok poisonings in 2018 he was the government's interim chief scientific advisor, before that post was assumed by Vallance. He only took on his current role as England's CMO in October 2019, following the departure of Dame Sally Davies. Having never done a broadcast interview before this point, little did Prof Whitty know that it would only be a matter of months before he became a household name and one of the pandemic's most familiar figures. As CMO, he provides public health and clinical advice to ministers in the health department and across government. He is supported in his role by two deputies: Professor Jonathan Van-Tam and Dr Aiden Fowler.