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Good morning. It was very poignant to see a picture of Dr Li Wen Liang desperately ill in in Wuhan Central Hospital shortly before he died. He was the doctor who gave a warning at the end of last year that there was a worrying new strain of the coronavirus beginning to circulate. For saying this he was detained by the authorities and accused of rumour-mongering. Just before he died he said, in a last riposte to his accusers, ‘There should be more than one voice’. His voice was finally silenced by the disease he tried to warn about, causing enormous anger in China and round the world.

Yet its hard not to have some understanding for the authorities. The outbreak has caused a huge crisis. It’s hard enough to try to contain the disease, without also having to contain public panic. In admiring Li Wen Liang’s bravery it would be easy to condemn China for trying to keep the lid on the emergency, and blame its lack of a free press and democratic traditions. But the Chinese authorities are not alone in trying to quash dissent in crisis.

I once met the head of an academic institution who was faced with what could have been damaging revelations and she said to me, ‘I hate whistleblowers’. I was rather shocked as I had no way of knowing whether it was because the whistleblowers she was talking about were telling uncomfortable truths or making alarmist claims. It is not always easy to tell the difference. In China, in this case, Li Wenliang was right. The coronavirus is now a world problem, a growing problem here with several surgeries now closed, and our quarantine rules being toughened.

I wrestle with this dilemma. In theory I believe in dissent, in the questioning of authority, in the lone voice that stands up for the truth. It echoes the Biblical tradition of prophecy, it resonates with the life of Jesus Christ and with all those heroic figures who have stood against what those in charge consider best for us. Western culture with its Judaeo-Christian roots, has an admiration for the dissident.

But from the same spiritual roots comes a yearning for unity, for leaders that can be trusted, for the wisdom of competence and experience. In particular when it comes to our health we desperately want to be able to trust our doctors and to believe in the authority they carry. We can’t help but admire the energy which has enabled the Chinese authorities to build hospitals from scratch in a matter of days. In our context, giving voice to dissidents often means argument and distortion, and news outlets that can exaggerate one side of the story against another. Yet as Li Wen Liang said, ‘There should be more than one voice’. As the virus spreads I am asking myself how do we do justice to that brave doctor’s dying words without losing faith in our public institutions?

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