Air kiss touchy feely goodbye
Shaking hands is really one of the major ways that you can transmit a respiratory-borne illness, says Fauci
SHAUN SMILLIE
WE ARE evolving into a nation of huggers, from a people who used to stiffly throw out a hand and mumble something like “pleased to meet you”.
Now, it is arms stretched wide to grasp and hold and even men are doing it to men.
Courtenay Kleu, chief executive of The School of Etiquette, has noticed this change in South African behaviour.
But that was in a time before the plague, for now the hug is banished together with cigarettes, the handshake and… oh yes, the kiss.
In the age of Covid-19, there is no skin on skin and smiles hide behind masks.
All so foreign to a species that values touch and at times a reassuring cuddle.
And the fear is that traditional greetings will be confined to history and that the virus has ushered in a new normal of 2m exclusion zones and supermarket freak-outs when someone incidentally touches the handles of a trolley.
Normal hugs and handshakes simply wither away and die. Some are already pushing for it.
In the US the man who has become the face of that country’s fight against the virus believes handshakes should go.
“I think what we’re going to have embedded and imprinted in us forever is the realisation that something as catastrophic as what the world is experiencing now can happen,” immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci said. “And as a society, just forget about shaking hands. We don’t need to shake hands. We’ve got to break that custom because that is really one of the major ways that you can transmit a respiratory-borne illness.”
It will take some doing to shake a habit that has become so embedded in many of our cultures.
Take the US president: someone once calculated that he shakes the hands of 65 000 people a year.
But don’t give up on the handshake quite yet, says Kleu.
“I think for the next two or three months people are going to be very cautious. However, the problem is the reason why we offer a handshake is to show not just a connection with someone, but a physical connection.
And when we meet face to face there is a need to try to create this,” she says. “I believe we will go back to shaking hands in the near future.”
Humankind and the handshake haven’t dealt with the likes of this before. The handshake has survived far worse plagues than this. Even during the Spanish flu pandemic 100 years ago, a firm handshake still closed deals and most likely aided in the spread of the deadly disease.
“People did, however, try to lock themselves away. It wasn’t any kind of official policy or regulation. There certainly are documented cases of farmers locking their gates and preventing anyone from coming in,” says Professor Howard Phillips, a historical epidemics expert at the University of Cape Town.
The Spanish flu swept through South Africa quickly and disappeared, explains Phillips, because the population acquired herd immunity.
“I don’t think Covid-19 is going to be such a quick arrival and departure. Everything we are hearing is that it is going to be here for several years to come, and I think that might impact on the handshake and the kiss,” he says.
So what is going to replace the handshake or even the hug in those years of self-isolation ahead?
Well, there is the friendly wave on a Zoom chat meeting or President Cyril Ramaphosa’s elbow bump.
It has been made fun of in songs and Youtube skits, but Kleu has a feeling Ramaphosa’s elbow bump might just catch on.
But ultimately, she believes, handshake is king and will return.
What will drive this comeback is what made the handshake all that important, back in the day when an extended hand was given to prove there were no daggers hidden up sleeves or a knife ready to be plunged into a back.
It all had to do with trust and that is what is going to bring it back.
“How it may return to normal is with those individuals who have established relationships and you might see them engaging in a handshake. With them saying I trust you, we have got this relationship and I am not afraid of you.”
But it is likely to be a while before we again feel that squeeze and the touch of skin on skin from a good hug.
We are hearing that it is going to be here for
several years Professor Howard Phillips
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN
People have definitely been challenged by the
situation