Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam spoke about his experiences at the COVID inquiry in London on Wednesday.

He said he received "extremely hateful messages" from members of the public, which he said left him considering whether to quit.

"Where I think it finally got to me was the fact that I might have expected that if a crisis happened that this was my responsibility to bear," he said.

"But I did not expect my family to be threatened with having their throats cut.

"I did not expect the police to have to say 'will you move out - in the middle of the night - middle of the evening - for a few days - while we look at this and potentially make some arrests'."

He added that his family didn't leave their home "because of the cat", which they "didn't want to leave".

Professor Sir Jonathan described the peak of the pandemic as a "very stressful time indeed", when he worked "16-hour days" and "seven-day-weeks".

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"I'm so worried that if there's a future crisis people won't want to sign up for these jobs because of the implications that come with them," he added.

He also said the NHS would have "inevitably be broken" if COVID infections continued at the same rate during the early months of the pandemic.

He said: "If you are short of (NHS) capacity in one area, you kind of move out and ship out into other areas.

"But the NHS is nevertheless finite in the number of staff and the number of beds so I think that is correct."

Sir Jonathan, who stepped down from his role in March 2022, became well known for his near-daily appearances at the government's COVID press conferences in Downing Street.

Many on social media became fond of his football analogies to explain different aspects of the virus.

He employed them again during his evidence on Wednesday to detail the differences in approach between him and his former boss, Professor Sir Chris Whitty.

He said: "As much as Chris and I are great friends and dear colleagues, we are different personalities.

"I'm the one who chases the ball and Chris is the one to look at the ball first and make a more qualified and thoughtful decision about whether it was worth chasing."

Professor Sir Chris, who gave evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday and Wednesday, was filmed being physically harassed in London in June 2021.

In January 2022 Jonathan Chew, 24, was jailed after admitting to the offence.