England medical director Chris Whitty has been verbally abused on the street and called a liar, a video uploaded to TikTok showed on Tuesday.
In the video, a young man can be seen repeatedly telling Whitty that he is a liar.
The TikTok account that posted the video has since been deleted.
Whitty has been at the helm of the Covid-19 pandemic as an adviser to the British government and appears regularly in press conferences with Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock condemned the video and told BBC Breakfast: “I think the individual in question is pathetic. I think it’s ridiculous what he’s doing. ”
Hancock praised Whitty, saying: “Chris Whitty is one of the greatest living scientists and his advice to the government to date, and his advice to everyone in the population has been incredible, incredibly intelligent and caring and is a great asset for this nation. ”
Matt Vickers, a Conservative MP for Stockton South, also criticized the video on Twitter.
“This is awful, I really can’t believe this movie,” Vickers wrote. “Chris Whitty is doing everything he can to guide us through this crisis and should never be abused.”
The UK Department of Health told CNN that they were “concerned that the more these videos circulated, the more they could encourage others to do the same”.