They were grabbing him and laughing while taking selfies in a friendly manner. In my view they were just messing around but they didn't think it through. Chris is not telepathic, there is no way for him to know if their intent is malice or playfulness. Plus they were filming themselves breaking the distancing rules.
I later learned that one of the young men lost their job because of the incident, I thought that was a bit harsh because they were just messing around and clearly didn't mean any harm, they didn't hit anyone and he didn't attack the work places assets. What they did was wrong but it doesn't mean they should lose their job in my view.
This is a Pandemic problem I think, Our Scientists and disease experts have been put on the National Stage and made famous by force. They want to carry on living a normal obscure life but they can't now because everyone knows who they are.
I would like to thank Dr Chris Whitty for sharing his insight with our government and helping us to fight this Pandemic.