Gilles Dufrénot is professor of economics at Aix-Marseille University and research associate at CEPII. He has been a consultant with the Banque de France, an advisor to the Commissioner for Economic Policies of the WAEMU Commission, and consultant for the European Union.
Anne Levasseur-Franceschi is an economist, instructor in Classe Préparatoire aux Grandes Écoles (CPGE), École Normale Supérieure, and specialist in health economics. She has recently participated in writing two reports with intensive care surgeons and anesthesiologists on Covid-19.
Is globalization the cause of epidemiological crises and, more specifically, of that of Covid-19? And if so, should we de-globalize, and up to what point?

In the midst of the polemics on governments’ lack of preparation and dependency on China, the authors in this book wanted to clarify what is at stake in this health crisis. Diving into the long expanse of history, they remind us that viruses have always traveled in the holds of ships, or more recently, in the cargo compartments of airplanes. However, they propose to go further and explain how the living world of viruses is intertwined with the animal world and that of human beings; to identify the connections that maintain ecological and environmental balances, and living ecosystems.

Because it is not just a matter of “repairing” the damage caused by the crisis, but of constructing globalization differently in order to limit climate change and preserve biodiversity. This is the only way, in the authors’ opinion, we will be able to avoid a massive increase in pandemics, whether viral or caused by disorders of metabolism (obesity, diabetes, hypertension, etc.).