The Covid-19 pandemic has strengthened the hand of those who have long opposed economic openness between countries. When a virus emerging from a food market in one part of the world can in virtually no time cause warlike disruption to societies everywhere, the argument that we must cut back on globalisation for the sake of national resilience is tempting. But it is wrong and must be resisted, or it will lead us astray as we set policy when coming out of the crisis.
On the face of it, all our current vulnerabilities seem rooted in globalisation: disease transmission, economic interdependence and medical procurement all criss-cross the world. But the supposed choice between national resilience and economic openness is a false one.
It is obviously true that with more contact, trade and travel between people across national borders, there are more opportunities for micro-organisms to spread. It was always thus: the Black Death travelled on ship rats; diseases from smallpox to the common cold travelled from the Old to the New World as soon as Christopher Columbus did.