From the ‘Vulcan’ to air high-fives and bowing to your colleagues
How handshakes are being replaced because of coronavirus as both the Queen and Boris Johnson ditch the formal greeting
Both the Queen and the UK Prime Minister are avoiding handshakes, amid fears the formal greeting could spread the coronavirus. But thousands of other concerned people have also stopped shaking hands – and have instead resorted to elbow bumps and other quirky greetings.
One man even joked he was going to adopt the 'Vulcan' salute, a greeting used by Spock from Star Trek which US lawmakers have also been advised to embrace.
A German author also suggested skipping handshakes and using the quirky salute. And another said: 'It's probably best to change the business handshakes to a bow until the crisis is over.'
It comes as Boris Johnson yesterday admitted there was a good reason not to shake hands during the coronavirus crisis. But the PM was caught snatching his hand back after extending it to greet religious leaders at Westminster Abbey.
Mr Johnson held his hands up in a gesture of innocence while his pregnant fiancée, Carrie Symonds, and the religious leader appeared to chuckle. The PM admitted: 'We were all given an instruction not to shake hands and there is a good reason for not shaking hands.'
The Queen has decided to stop shaking hands with members of the public for the foreseeable future as a matter of 'personal preference'. She opted against handshakes when she greeted the Sri Lankan High Commissioner Saroja Sirisena and husband at Buckingham Palace yesterday. Last week the 93-year-old was pictured for the first time wearing gloves during a palace investiture, where she met dozens of members of the public. An aide confirmed to the Mail it was ' Her Majesty's personal preference' not to shake hands during the coronavirus outbreak.
Twitter user @SoozUK said that her fun new handshake alternative was an elbow bump, joking that it has a '100 per cent success rate so far'.
While Neil Stewart joked that he was going to start greeting people with the Vulcan salute. Lawmakers in the US were yesterday advised to use the same 'live long and prosper' sign in a behind-closeddoors meeting, CNN reports.
Another user, @fy_ed, joked that his 'big boss' from Australia did an air handshake across the room with another store manager.
One Twitter user posted a meme of the Wakanda Forever gesture – a salute created in the Black Panther movie, joking Marvel fans would have a solution to not shaking hands.
While another person posted a video from the NBA that showed two basketball stars simulating spraying sanitiser on each other's hands.
It comes after the Dutch Prime Minister yesterday told people not to shake hands to avoid spreading coronavirus moments before shaking someone's hand. Prime Minister Mark Rutte called on citizens of the Netherlands to stop using the greeting. But he then somewhat undermined his message by shaking hands with the head of the infectious diseases department of the national public health institute.
'From this moment on, we stop shaking hands,' Mr Rutte said at a news conference in The Hague following a crisis meeting of government ministers to discuss the virus. So far in the Netherlands the deadly virus has killed four people and infected 382 overall.
'You can do a foot kiss, bump elbows, whatever you want,' he said. ' I see all kinds of great variations on shaking hands emerging at schools, but from today we stop shaking hands.'
As he wrapped up the news conference, he shook hands with Jaap van Dissel of the public health institute, who quickly pointed out the prime minister's error. 'Sorry, sorry, we can't do that anymore! Do it again,' Mr Rutte said as he bumped elbows with Mr van Dissel instead.
In sport, the Premier League has ordered handshakes between players not to occur for the foreseeable future.
A statement released by the football's governing body confirmed that players will no longer be shaking hands, until further notice.
The handshake is becoming a taboo greeting among workers, as employees and clients fear the spread of coronavirus in the workplace.
The hashtag StopShakingHands has been widely used on Twitter as the outbreak takes hold and Britons take steps to minimise the chances of catching the illness.
In Germany, even Chancellor Angela Merkel was shunned by her interior minister Horst Seehofer who refused to shake her hand at an event last week.
Merkel had previously refused to shake the hands of attendees at an event in her own district due to the outbreak.
Motivational speaker and presentation coach Richard McCann hosted an event in Leeds last week and posted a video that showed him greeting a man with an air handshake in a move he said was because of the 'unfolding coronavirus situation'.