Health Experts: Plastic Bags Better for COVID-19 Fight [OPINION]

I wish I said it first. Sigh.

So the liberal, crunchy-yet-filthy, pathogen-riddled, hemp rope re-usable bags that our local elected scientists/politicians tried to force us into using have been scrapped by the Governor Charlie Baker by lifting the plastic bags ban by municipalities in Massachusetts.

Apparently, washing the re-usable bags with homeopathic lemongrass and cucumber soap and positive energy from good thoughts wasn't as sanitary as the plastic bags (which I prefer) in stores.

The COVID-19 coronavirus is a stubborn one that is highly contagious through tiny water droplets from sneezing and coughing. Human-to-human transmission is the most likely way to get the disease, but it also can be waiting for us on various surfaces, for hours in some cases, days in others and in cooler conditions, for well over a week in some tests.

The health officials in Massachusetts have urged the governor to lift any municipal ban of the plastic bags in a more sanitary way than by using the re-usable bags which would disgust anyone with a microscope.

Studies have shown that reusable bags in supermarkets often contain E. coli, norovirus and other nasty pathogens. In an Arizona Univesity study, 97 percent of the users admitted they don't wash them.

Even if the bags did come into the store sanitized, there could be a lot of hands on those bags besides yours: a grocery clerk, another customer throughout the store or in your check-out line – or perhaps another store or wholesale worker handling your goods failed to wash their hands after a bowel movement or after handling a package of meat with pig or chicken fluids on it. Cross-contamination happens from hand to bag with the greatest of ease.

Enter COVID-19. Game changer. We are all in a sort of "September 12" mode when it comes to pathogen's vigilance. The canvas or hemp bags are now not wanted in public.

A very, very smart dude recently wrote about plastic bags being better for us and our environment than paper or reusable alternatives. He must be a very cool, smart, handsome guy and probably a great dancer, too.

Ken Pittman is the host of The Ken Pittman Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact him at ken.pittman@townsquaremedia.com. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.