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When the pandemic began, ministers settled on what they hoped would be a reassuring combination to provide advice on staying home and saving lives – they turned to Professor Chris Whitty and the familiar, booming voice of actor Mark Strong.
Eight months later, the medical director and the Hollywood star have been impersonated by a man who is younger than one and could be considered to have less obvious charisma than the other.
But the public verdict is clear: Jonathan Van-Tam, the ironically hotheaded deputy chief medical officer with a penchant for exaggerated metaphors and the Boston United soccer club, appears to have earned the trust of the nation.
And on Thursday, when the government began to implement its vaccine communication strategy in earnest, it found itself turning from the cold gravity of the Downing Street meeting room to the warm but terrifying gaze of Holly and Phil.
Van-Tam’s rise to “preferred scientist” to tour television studios and carry the government’s message about the importance and safety of vaccines may, at first glance, seem surprising.
Until this year, the closest brush to fame for the former editor of the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses had come in the form of routine reminders to get a flu shot.
Nor does the way the 56-year-old bespectacled teacher has had enough of 3B but also wants to get to the pub immediately suggests it as a likely household name.
Nonetheless, it was Van-Tam who found himself touring on BBC Breakfast, 5 Live and ITV’s This Morning.
A government insider cited by Politico’s Playbook He reflected, “JVT is definitely the most trusted and beloved voice. People like the wise Whitty act. [Patrick] Vallance and Simon Stevens don’t appear on the radar. The less you talk about Jenny Harries, the better. “
While that primacy rests in part on his no-nonsense advice and willingness to break ranks when the moment calls for it, on Wednesday he broke Boris Johnson’s Panglossian optimism to suggest that people can wear masks for years to come, it could be his way. with the words that have cemented their place in the public consciousness.
Addressing the public about easing the confinement in May, the professor pleaded: “Don’t tear your pants.”
But it combines invigorating clarity with a penchant for more allusive riffs: there have been glideslopes, penalty shootouts and “waiting for a train on a windy night.”
At a press conference, when he was working from home, he decided to end each of his answers with the word “change”, more like a fishing boat talking on the radio in port on a stormy night.
Meanwhile, he has been willing to avoid the formality that might be expected of his work by framing his advice in completely human terms.
On Thursday he returned to the familiar topic of the advice he would give his mother – get vaccinated as quickly as possible – and told his audience that she calls him “Jonny.” He also conjured up a new soccer image with something twisted but effective about 70-minute draws and the need for the country to pull off a late winner, and suggested that Santa Claus would be at the forefront of the vaccine line.
It remains to be seen whether the man who may now have supplanted comedian Robert Webb as Boston’s most famous son will be content to return to the relative obscurity of the bureaucracy.
If not, Strong, the star of the Kingsman franchise, might be well advised to have a word with his agent.
So could Matthew McConaughey – this week he found himself five spots below Van Tam on Grazia magazine’s “lust chart.”
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