COVID-19 & Plastic Promoters

The following individuals and groups, who have historically focused on denying or downplaying the risk of man-made global warming, have turned their attention to the COVID-19 crisis.

This set of examples looks at those who have used the coronavirus as an excuse to promote plastics and plastic bags as the only safe materials to use due to viruses like the novel coronavirus.

*Please note that automatic transcripts were generated for some of the video materials, and while we have reviewed the transcripts, there may still be errors. Contact DeSmog if you notice any errors and we will address them as soon as possible.*

These examples are taken out of a larger body of evidence DeSmog has gathered on COVID denial.

Angela Logomasini

“Plastic bag bans aren’t helping us fight against coronavirus,” Washington Examiner, March 18

Single-use plastic bans amount to bad public health policy, which is one reason why proper disposal, rather than bans, is the answer to litter problems. It’s time for lawmakers to wake up before more people get sick from dirty pathogen-laden reusable products.

Bjorn Lomborg

CFACT

Paul Driessen. “Let’s quarantine some fake corona and energy news,” CFACT, April 6.

Life-saving modern technologies, hospitals, labs, drugs and homes didn’t just happen. They are the product of mining, logging, roads, drilling, modern agriculture, communication and transportation, and especially fossil fuel and nuclear energy – which enable innovation to thrive, help keep Nature’s wrath and fury at safer distances, and helped extend average American life spans from 40 in 1800 to 47 in 1900 and 78 today. How and why this happened is an amazing saga. The story of penicillin is just as fascinating.

The Guardian has it completely backward. Utilizing Earth’s surface and subsurface bounties – God’s blessings – did not unleash COVID-19 and other viruses, bacteria and diseases. Doing so helped save us from pestilence and starvation that have ravaged humanity throughout history. It still does today.

[…]

Imagine what would happen if abundant, reliable, affordable heat and electricity from fossil, nuclear and hydroelectric were replaced by limited, intermittent, weather-dependent, expensive wind, solar and battery power. The impacts on our healthcare and living standards would be horrific. Try to picture life in African villages and cities, where electricity, clean water, sanitation and healthcare are still almost nonexistent.

“Banning plastic grocery bags spreads disease,” CFACT, March 18

The environmental cost of alternatives to plastic grocery bags should cause policymakers to resist further bans on them and to reconsider existing bans. More so, the spread of coronavirus and other bacteria demands the repeal of the bans on plastic grocery bags.

Isaac Orr

Manhattan Institute

“Greening Our Way to Infection: The ban on single-use plastic grocery bags is unsanitary—and it comes at the worst imaginable time,” City Journal (Manhattan Institute publication), March 12

The Covid-19 outbreak is giving new meaning to those ‘sustainable’ shopping bags that politicians and environmentalists have been so eager to impose on the public. These reusable tote bags can sustain the Covid-19 and flu viruses—and spread the viruses throughout the store.