Well, I’m with him, although not for health reasons. Communion under both species (bread and wine) seems to be done primarily in Catholic churches in liberal English-speaking areas, and it started against the regulations and was de facto approved first in the US.
There’s no need for it, it slows down and clutters up the Communion line, and it has resulted in some unfortunate accidents (which I have seen on more than one occasion) where either an elderly parishioner or one of the ditzy “EEMS” drops or spills the chalice.
I rarely see this in Spanish speaking or Southern European countries, except in the most “kumbaya” churches which, alas, exist there too.
So it was a case where deliberately ignoring the rules led to a change in practice. Interesting.
Re germs - One of my family members used to be an EM and was required to consume the Blood remaining in the chalice. Between the phlegm and the germs, he caught strep and other illnesses multiple times in a single year. The possibility of germ transmission is real. Wiping the rim with a cloth as they do between communicants basically just smears the saliva and the germs around.
There’s no need for it,
True. Christ is present in the Sacred Host - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.