Life is going to look a lot different after this pandemic.
The first permanent change, and ironically what we’d dub a welcome one: We can stop shaking hands.
“As a society, just forget about shaking hands,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, in an interview Tuesday with Scott Thurman, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s chief political correspondent. “We don’t need to shake hands. We’ve got to break that custom.”
What habit should *NOT* return in the future–even after the #Coronavirus threat is minimized? #DrFauci tells me: pic.twitter.com/piQDQA1hqG
— Scott Thuman (@ScottThuman) April 7, 2020
Dr. Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, notes that the customary greeting is “one of the major ways you can transmit a respiratory-borne illness,” as reported by Business Insider.
(Side note: If we can get rid of the fake hug, that’d also be great.)
In its place: Possibly the fist bump, a greeting that could “substantially reduce the transmission of infectious disease between individuals,” as noted by a 2014 paper by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.
Another option? The elbow tap, which some people seem to be taking to heart more than others. For real non-contact, however, National Geographic readers recently suggested everything from a Kiwi head nod to a Vulcan salute.
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