Susanna Reid revealed on Good Morning Britain she believes the government's ongoing communication of lockdown changes has been "shocking".
She slammed the recent U-turns on local lockdowns including two boroughs in Greater Manchester which were lifted out of lockdown for just 12 hours before it was reimposed.
Dr Hilary Jones explained the changing advice was based on changing data, but Susanna took issue with what she thinks is insufficient communication of the rules, meaning people unintentionally break them and further spread the virus.
Speaking alongside co host Ben Shephard, Susanna said queried whether local councils and authorities had any clue what they were doing.
Disagreeing, Hilary replied: "It's not helpful to try to pretend people don't know what they're doing, because they do.
"Local councils and authorities are on top of their data."
Susanna pressed him: "Do you think they do know?"
"Yes I do," Hilary replied. "We can improve test and tracing by doing it door to door, we can improve communication and messaging to the people that are affected in those areas, the restrictions will work but we have to give it time."
Susanna quipped: "I think the communication has been pretty shocking."
"And confusing," added Ben. "It's so confusing for everybody in terms of whether they can see people.
"You're saying households are meeting and they know they shouldn't be, I'm not sure that's the case.
"I'm not sure people do know they shouldn't be meeting when there's lockdown and then lifting the restrictions then putting them straight back on again, that's a really confusing picture."
* Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV at 6am
