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Good Morning. Not so long ago, this coronavirus was something happening to other people in a faraway land. The footage of empty squares and lifeless avenues, and people in hazmat suits was gripping – in the same way that a movie is gripping - but it didn’t seem real. As Camus wrote in his novel - The Plague - ‘the people disbelieve in pestilence – we tell ourselves it’s a bad dream and that it will pass away.’ But then, at work, you find yourself being asked if you’ve been to Italy in the last 14 days; you hear that the local school might have to close; then you take a wide birth around someone wearing a face mask in the street, and a presenter on the Today programme has to self-isolate because he’s just been to the far east; and the virus is suddenly very real because it is affecting you – even if it is not yet infecting you. Whether we end up defining it as a pandemic, Covid 19 has already travelled faster and further than previous viruses, in deed and in reputation. And it is acting as a stress test of systems and structures, as well as values – both national and individual. In China the government was caught between an instinct to suppress and control and a need for openness, and possibly made things worse for fear of looking bad; in the West, old entitlements and certainties are being challenged. What about my freedom, my holiday? The stock-market? Like that woman yelling ‘do something! from the balcony of her quarantined hotel, people are looking to the authorities to get them out of this. In Camus’ novel the plague leads to the city of Oran being quarantined and shows how quickly we place our own survival above that of our neighbour’s. The plague itself contains that most insidious of pathogens: Fear, which mutates into panic and selfishness. And superstition. And then leads to blame: of the Government. Of the other. Of the unbeliever. And of God. But such extremes can also bring out the best in people, as shown by Dr Lay, who broke the news of the virus in Wuhan and then died from it a few weeks later. He knew the virus was deadly and took the risk of upsetting the authorities by telling people. He saw a direct connection between fear on the part of the government and the spread of the disease. Fear is a pandemic through which actual disease can spread. Jesus spoke of this and called it out: ‘There will be pestilence in various places,’ he said. ‘But do not be frightened. By standing firm you will gain life.’ If we can resist a natural tendency to panic we can break the tyranny of fear. Dr Lay said just before he died that ‘in a healthy society there can’t be just one voice.’ His fearless stand came at great personal cost, but it has almost certainly led to the saving of lives.