Judith Holzgen

I don't write reviews usually, but a recent segment of Good Morning America really irked me. I think it was yesterday's segment (10/22) or, possibly, Wednesday's (10/21). The reporter stated that there had a been a change in the contact period for COVID-19. A contact is now being defined as 15 minutes or longer within a 24 hour period instead of a single period of 15 minutes. When my daughter got home from work, I mentioned the change to her and said, "What difference does it make? A person could be infected within 5 seconds of contact." After further thought, I realized that it makes a difference in contact tracing. Of course, they have to establish some limits for contact tracing. It would be unreasonable to try to contact everyone a person had any contact with (for example, the store worker you asked to direct you to the frozen food section). So it is an important distinction for contact tracing and I think the change was made to improve contact tracing efforts given the surge in cases we've been seeing. However, this reasoning was never presented by the reporter, and because of her neglect, there are probably numerous people who saw that segment who now think they don't have to worry about social distancing as long as they're in contact with someone for less than 15 minutes. It doesn't make sense if you think about it, but a lot of people don't think about it. They take these reports at face value. By not providing the complete story, you become part of the problem. Please quit presenting the news about important issues as entertainment. Your audience deserves to know the complete story.