"From Now On, Reusable Bags Are Prohibited and All Regulations on Plastic Bag Bans Are Lifted"

Says Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, presumably for the duration of the pandemic emergency.

From WCVB.com; thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer. "Boston Mayor Marty Walsh had previously announced the same measures in the city," and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu had announced the same 4 days ago.

Comments

[Mr. Jwpvysig, Jr.]

Bwahahahahahaha! Gasp! Bwahahahahaha! ????????????

[sam123]

Even independent of covid-19, those tote bags are vectors for infections. People won't wash them and will rest them in areas prone to infections (subway floors as I have seen personally). Plastic bags are a godsent despite what the virtue-signaling governors and state legislatures have said.

[Sarcastr0]

Until I see studies on that I'm going to be pretty skeptical of that kind of speculation.

[sam123]

https://www.city-journal.org/banning-single-use-plastic-bags-covid-19
I know many often deny an argument based on icky source alone but there are scholarly studies cited herein.

[Dr. Ed]

This is legitimate academic research that indicates that SARS-CoV-2 remains on a surface similar to a reusable shopping bag for up to 3 days. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.09.20033217v1.full.pdf

[Sarcastr0]

Guys, I wasn't talking about COVID, asking for studies on that specifically would be pretty dumb and unscientific.
I'm not going to believe anything about some rushed definitely not peer reviewed COVID study about freaking shopping bags right now, come on.

What about, you know, just general disease and cloth bags versus plastic? I would expect some concrete studies on that.

[ThePublius]

You know, Sarcastr0, sometimes you can be just a contrary dick. Is Volokh the only source of info for you?

Try google with this search term: "health risks of reusable shopping bags"

This is WELL KNOWN, and has been for years.

[Sarcastr0]

If you're making an assertion and appealing to speculation, I'm going to ask you bring your evidence.

[Absaroka]

Glad to help.

[Absaroka]

If that was too complicated, here's another.

There's nothing the matter with asking for a source if something is obscure, but when the first couple pages of search results contain the answer it's a little odd to ask other people to run the search for you. It's certainly not an effective debate topic; it just makes people think that you must be pretty uninformed if that level of research is beyond you.

(and I take no particular position on the health merits of different kinds of grocery bags; just that the health concerns, valid or not, have been widely reported enough to be considered common knowledeg)

[Dr. Ed]

You do realize that it takes MONTHS for a study to be peer reviewed, for the peer reviews to arrive, and then for the study to be published. However, the NEJM has printed the study I cited as an op-ed and they wouldn't do that if they didn't consider it credible.

[Sarcastr0]

That's not how science works, Ed.

[Brett Bellmore]

That which is not mandatory is prohibited. But they swap places periodically?

[Kevin Smith]

We are war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Nay, they have always been at war with us.

[Naaman Brown]

We have always been at war with Eurasia and Eastasia.
Oceania makes alliances of convenience, but trusts neither.

[Dr. Ed]

These are all local (municipal) bans and I've been trying to get the local town to do this for the past three weeks -- the research indicates that the Wuhan Virus can live on these bags for three days. I don't know how Baker has the authority to overrule local ordinances, but he did.

The bigger issue is New Hampshire closing its borders -- that would screw Maine as without going through Canada, it's impossible to get to Maine without going through NH, and the Canadian border is closed.

[TheAmazingEmu]

I know this has become an oddly politicized issue, but is there a reason you don't want to say COVID-19?

[Dr. Ed]

A: Because I am told I have to -- and hence I won't.

B: Because if I called it anything, it would be "SARS-CoV-2" -- a close relative of "SARS-CoV-1", which -- yes -- was recently pandemic in China.

C: Because I don't believe that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is completely innocent in this matter. And notwithstanding that, the ChiComs -- the Chinese Communist Party and the related government, definitely is not innocent. THEY LIED -- they initially told the world that this was NOT human-to-human transmissible, and that cost Europe 6-8 weeks of prep time. People died as a result.

They wouldn't let our CDC people in so we could see what we were facing, etc. They are supposed to be a good member of the world community, and they clearly weren't!

[ThePublius]

Kung Flu
Chinese Corona Virus
Wuhan Flu
Wuhan Virus
Chinese Bat Soup Virus

[Sarcastr0]

Exigencies are not inconsistencies, though I see many picking up on that false equivalency.

Might have wanted to point out such an easy and predictable logical trap to people, Prof.