We doctors are scared of the coronavirus crisis. How could we not be? | Anonymous

I'm an NHS consultant and I take heart from the calmness and courage my staff are showing, despite the creeping fear

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I had the strangest sensation this week.

A creeping, prickling, lurching fear. Sitting at my desk, I had logged into our imaging system and opened the scan of the patient I'd been asked to review. He had come in with fever and a cough and - crucially - no recent travel or contact with anyone unwell. The characteristic pattern of speckled whiteness, akin to powdered glass, was sprinkled around the outer part of both his lungs. For the first time I could no longer pretend that the disease I had read so much about was in China, or Iran, or Italy. It was here, and spreading. In my city. In my hospital. On my screen.