Professor Jason Leitch says some of the abuse he's faced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic has been tough to deal with.
Scotland's National Clinical Director says the nasty messages not only affect himself, but members of his family too.
As reported by the Daily Record, Leitch, a non-political advisor, has gone from around 12,000 Twitter followers to around 100,000 as he's played a vital role in conveying the Scottish Government's messaging around coronavirus on TV and radio.
And he says the vast majority of his new followers haven't come on board to express their gratitude.
He said: “Most of them were not joyful. They weren’t following me in order to wish me well. Many of them had lost their businesses, they were nightclub owners. And I was perceived to be the one who had shut their nightclub.
“The direct abuse of me is tough, tough on my family, tough on my mum and dad, tough on my wife who is a teacher.”
He says the people who question his motives are those he finds most difficult to deal with.
He added: "The ones that get me are the low level, the ones who think I am doing it because I am bad, or they attack my motives. And it’s kind of ‘you’re a clown, you don’t know what you are talking about, you are just in the pocket of the SNP’.
“Or, the opposite of that sometimes, ‘you are just anti-SNP, you are a football fan’....they just chip away at you. They are the ones that I find harder to deal with.”
He advised: “Don’t look at Twitter replies. Use Twitter as a way of informing, not of having dialogue, because it doesn’t work for dialogue in the main.”
