Chris Whitty speaking during today’s Downing Street press conference:

“Winter is coming.”

24 year old Lewis Hughes has pleaded guilty to assault following his street harassment of Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty back in June. Hughes appeared alongside fellow yob Jonathan Chew (who’s also facing charges of obstructing police for giving a false name to the arresting officer) at Wesminster Magistrates’ Court today, with Hughes smiling at photographers as he entered the building. A busy afternoon in the courts…

Following footage shared yesterday of Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty being harassed in the street for the third time, Priti Patel reacted on Times Radio this morning by confirming the Metropolitan Police are investigating the incident, and hinting Whitty may now receive personal security:

“Chris is just a remarkable public servant … I am horrified by what has happened to Chris, and the police are actually involved as well … we’re also speaking to Chris to look at what we can do to support him, it’s just appalling.”

Pressed on whether that meant he needed police protection, Patel said she “can’t speak about that, but it’s important that Chris is given the right kind of support.” Decisions about who receives government protection falls under the Home Office’s ‘Royal and VIP Executive Committee’, so it’s certainly within Patel’s remit. Given how often this seems to be happening, you’d have thought he’d have it already…

Speaking to the Science and Technology Committee this morning, SAGE Chair Sir Patrick Vallance dismissed the idea of completely eliminating covid as impossible:

“I do not think that ‘Zero Covid’ is possible. I think there is nothing to suggest that this virus will go away, at least in any time soon, it’s going to be there circulating, it may be a winter virus that comes back over winters with increasing infection rates during that period.

I don’t think that Zero Covid is possible and I think it’s going to be very difficult for any country to maintain complete absence of this long term because at some point countries have to open up borders.”

It wasn’t only the ‘Zero Covid’ fanatics that both Vallance and Whitty disappointed today. The boffins repeatedly felt the need to correct the implications of questions from various Labour MPs about the safety of schools. Chris Whitty patiently repeatedly explained that the risk to children from Covid is smaller than the risk from seasonal flu. He also explained that teachers are not a group at high risk. Disappointing news for fans of the armchair scientist suggestions of the Labour Party…

UPDATE: Whitty joined in the Zero Covid bashing too, slamming Dawn Butler’s suggestion that ‘Zero Covid’ advocates don’t actually mean zero covid when they say they want zero covid.

“As a scientist, for me zero means zero. So if you’re saying you want a zero covid strategy what you’re saying is that you want zero covid cases. You can say that, but what I’m just saying is I don’t think that’s a realistic option. If people say well I don’t mean zero I mean another number, fine, but then put a different number on it.”

Following Chris Whitty’s abuse incident while trying to buy lunch, the Westminster market stall Santana Grill launched an initiative for the public to show their appreciation to the CMO by buying lunch for him. The move was highlighted by yesterday’s Londoner’s Diary:

“If you would like to gift his favourite lunch box to the man who’s been giving his absolute best for all of us, please purchase a gift card,” they say on their website. Tuck in, Chris.”

Guido spotted the gift cards had sold out shortly after and enquired how many had been bought. Santana Grill, however, revealed that despite initiative coming off the back of requests from philanthropic members of the public, they had come under fire from some sceptics:

“The initiative we launched yesterday morning was capped to a total of 4 gift cards based on Professor Whitty’s frequency of visits to our market stall per month. Due to the unwanted attention from the media, we decided to cancel and refund all donations as the scheme was taken out of context; some sadly accused us of profiteering off the back of the CMO which is the last thing we wanted from the public’s kind gestures towards one of our customers.”

Unnerving scenes as Chris Whitty was subjected to verbal harassment by a young man this afternoon while trying to buy lunch. The scenes that took place at Westminster’s Strutton Ground market will be unlikely to win many fans for the idiot young male TikToker…