This Overlooked Variable Is the Key to the Pandemic

As the world grapples to make sense of this pandemic, sociologist Zeynep Tufekci has consistently been ahead of the curve. So much so that the NYT wrote a profile of her, as the woman who «keeps getting the big things right». In this new piece, she focuses on the fact that a majority of people infected with the coronavirus don’t pass the virus on. Why that makes R a flawed indicator, what needs to be changed about contact tracing, and why Sweden doesn’t deserve its special role in debates about strategies.