A woman who was coughed on by a disgruntled person who refused to wear a mask is speaking out on the viral interaction.
On Monday, Allison Goodbaum appeared on Good Morning America to recount the situation, which was captured on-camera and circulated on social media over the weekend.
The confrontation happened at a bagel shop in New York City when a woman intentionally coughed on Goodbaum, who had pointed out to employees that the fellow customer should be wearing a face covering amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
"I didn't say anything to her — it's not my place to say anything to her directly," said Goodbaum. "I told the staff that I believe they should enforce the mask rule inside."
When the maskless customer was checking out, she overheard Goodbaum's complaint and began yelling, "Say it to my face," before approaching Goodbaum, who was wearing a mask, and purposely coughed at her. Goodbaum said it was "jarring" and could feel the woman's breath on her.
"I was shocked that that was her initial reaction was, to cough on me," she said. "I was really scared because I was thinking, 'Did she actually infect me?'"
The New York City Bagel and Coffee House, where the incident took place, issued a statement on social media, writing that the "behavior of the woman is unacceptable in our establishment."
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The bagel shop said masks are required for customers and employees, but in this case, the staff members were "caught off guard" and "frightened" by the woman's outburst.
"We told our staff to NEVER serve anyone without a mask or face covering and if the customer gives them any issue to immediately call authorities," read the statement. "No customer should be treated like this, especially during these difficult times where we should all stick together to get through this."
The Bagel and Coffee House continued on to say that there is "no excuse" for the woman's "horrific" behavior and that she is banned from all their locations.
According to WPIX, the woman who coughed on Goodbaum was later identified as Lauren Balsamo, a former employee at Weill Cornell Medicine. The medical center addressed her actions in a statement on Instagram.
"As an institution on the COVID-19 frontlines, this behavior is shocking and abhorrent to us," the Instagram post statement read. "Since WCM's mission is to protect the health and wellbeing of all New Yorkers, we condemn this flagrant disregard of public safety."
In the post's caption, the company clarified that Balsamo hadn't been an employee since the beginning of the year.
"Weill Cornell Medicine condemns the actions recently exhibited by a former employee in a video circulating on social media," the caption read. "This person has not been an employee of WCM since January of this year."
Goodbaum told WPIX that learning of Balsamo's work in the medical field "added insult to injury" for her. (PEOPLE could not immediately reach Balsamo for comment.)
"If you're working in the health care industry, it's entirely up to you to know the guidelines and enforce them for yourself and have the knowledge and understanding, because that's your world, to take it seriously," Goodbaum said. "People like that should not be working in the health care industry."
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