A FORMER GP has revealed how he broke Covid restriction rules at the height of the pandemic to hug a woman at a vaccine clinic.
Dr Prit Buttar, who is retired, chose to volunteer to administer Covid jabs and last week took to Twitter to share a tweet which went viral.
He told BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme why he decided to breach social distancing regulations.
"I was working in one of the vaccine clinics and one of the reception staff came through and asked if we could fit in somebody who should have come a few days before, but had missed her appointment,” he recalled.
"Of course, we said that's fine and when she came in, she was so apologetic that she had wasted an appointment and apologised again and again, and we reassured her."
The 61-year-old said the patient told him her husband had died from cancer and that she had to make arrangements on her own for his funeral.
“She clung to me and wept, and sobbed into my shoulder,” Buttar wrote in this tweet. She then told him it was “the first time anyone’s embraced me since he [her husband] died”.
“So, I decided to break the rules about social distancing. I leant forward in my chair and put my arms around her,” he added.
“I'm sure others could tell similar stories. This is how ordinary people endured the lockdowns and the terrible pain that they sometimes brought.
“They endured loss and heartbreak and loneliness with stoicism and resignation. After all, we were all in it together, weren’t we?”
In his last tweet in that thread, he wrote: “And meanwhile, others in the highest positions of government behaved as if the rules didn’t apply to them.”
Buttar’s tweet came as prime minister Boris Johnson apologised for a May 20, 2020 party in the Downing Street garden, telling parliament last week he thought it was a "work event", despite an aide inviting staff to "bring your own booze".
Since Buttar posted his experience last Friday (14), his tweet went viral. Many other users described their own emotional stories of how they felt compelled to break social distancing rules.
Buttar explained to the BBC why he had shared his experience in breaking the Covid measures.
"I posted on Twitter about this just to make the point that, you know, ordinary people dealt with their loss and their loneliness with tremendous fortitude and resignation and stoicism and what a contrast to the behaviour of the prime minister and his entourage," he said.
“Everyone in the thread who said they'd broken the rules had done so in order to help somebody else, not because they wanted to have a party," he said.
"The other thread of it was the people who hadn't broken the rules, who had watched loved ones die over an iPad and now bitterly regretted that they hadn't taken that moment just to say goodbye to their loved one.
"One of the universal comments I have seen when I've looked at the thread from people is that the gulf between everyday experiences and the behaviour of the prime minister is so vast.
"This is not something for which an apology - a promise to do better - will ever suffice."
Johnson said on Tuesday (18): “I'm saying categorically that nobody told me, nobody said this was something that was against the rules, doing something that wasn't a work event because frankly, I can't imagine why it would have gone ahead or it would have been allowed to go ahead if it was against the rules.
“I carry full responsibility for what took place, nobody said to me 'this is an event that's against the rules, in breach of what we're asking everybody else to do'."
Moglai Bap and Mo Chara of Kneecap perform at Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 28, 2025. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
Police may probe anti-Israel comments at Glastonbury
BRITISH police said they were considering whether to launch an investigation after performers at Glastonbury Festival made anti-Israel comments during their shows.
"We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon," Avon and Somerset Police, in western England, said on X late on Saturday (28).
Irish hip-hop group Kneecap and punk duo Bob Vylan made anti-Israeli chants in separate shows on the West Holts stage on Saturday. One of the members of Bob Vylan chanted "Death, death, to the IDF" in a reference to the Israel Defense Forces.
"Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation," the police statement said.
The Israeli Embassy in Britain said it was "deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival".
Prime minister Keir Starmer said earlier this month it was "not appropriate" for Kneecap to appear at Glastonbury.
The band's frontman Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November. He has denied the charge.
A British government minister said it was appalling that the anti-Israel chants had been made at Glastonbury, and that the festival's organisers and the BBC broadcaster - which is showing the event - had questions to answer.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said he was also appalled by violence committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
"I'd also say to the Israeli Embassy, get your own house in order in terms of the conduct of your own citizens and the settlers in the West Bank," Streeting told Sky News.
"I wish they'd take the violence of their own citizens towards Palestinians more seriously," he said.
(Reuters)