In her latest contribution to The Atlantic, UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Associate Professor Zeynep Tufekci explains that the COVID-19 crisis engulfing the United States is not only a failure of leadership, but also the result of asystemic thinking that allowed organizations, including the media, and individuals to underestimate the threat.

“We failed to understand that complex systems defy simplistic reductionism,” she writes.

Tufekci points out several articles and op-eds that downplayed the potential risks, and explains how the repercussions of COVID-19 will reverberate in large and small ways across health care and other sectors.

Click here to read the full analysis, “It Wasn’t Just Trump Who Got It Wrong.”

Just last week, Tufecki wrote an op-ed for the New York Times titled “Why Telling People They Didn’t Need Masks Backfired.” She had previously written an analysis of China’s response to the virus for The Atlantic and a guide to preparing for the virus for Scientific American.

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