However, the president was seen exchanging greetings, punching some while shaking hands with others. He also pointed out that while its potential demise was predicted in the early days of the pandemic, the handshake has proven too resilient to disappear. “There’s the science. I think there’s the fact that it’s not only an ingrained habit for a lot of people, but there’s also no good replacement,” said Andrew Molinsky, a professor of organizational behavior at Brandeis University’s International Business School in Boston. Molinski said that among the “portfolio of greetings,” which includes the fist, elbow, smile and wave, “the market share was and still is dominated by the handshake.”

A hard habit to break

“The question would then be why? Is it that the other gestures weren’t as exciting? Is it a habit that’s hard to break? Or is there something inherent [it]? “I think it’s probably all of that.” Before Joe Biden left for his trip to the Middle East last week, White House officials said the president would limit physical contact, including shaking hands, as part of COVID-19 precautions. However, the president was seen exchanging greetings, punching some and shaking hands with others. (Badar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace/The Associated Press) At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, with knowledge of the virus and its transmission in its infancy, one area of ​​concern for potential spread was physical touch and the simple handshake gesture. This gesture was a sore spot for some infectious disease experts long before COVID-19. Microorganisms that can cause infections can live on the surface of the hand, especially the palm. When someone shakes hands, these germs can be transferred from one person’s skin to another’s skin. This in itself is usually harmless, but the threat comes when a person who has just received this germ touches their face and lets these germs enter their mouth and nose or eyes. And when the COVID-19 virus emerged, it was believed that it would also pose the same transmission threat. “There are a lot of different viruses, including respiratory viruses, that can spread through handshakes and contact and things like that,” said Stephen Kissler, a researcher in the department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. . “We had every reason to believe that SARS-CoV-2 would behave in the same way.” A number of articles in 2020 predicted that this virus would end the germ’s gesture, including Time magazine “COVID-19 killed the handshake. What will replace it?“And the New Yorker”In Memoriam: The Handshake.“ Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leader of the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic, told the Wall Street Journal in an April 2020 podcast that he didn’t think “we should ever shake hands again.”

Thinking has changed ‘dramatically’

But after initial fears — and more research — “the thinking around this has changed dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic,” Kissler said. “It really seems from all the vast amounts of data that we’ve collected up to this point, that the vast, vast majority of infections are through airborne spread,” he said. “I would say a handshake is a very low-risk thing you can do with regards to COVID.” This does not mean that COVID-19 cannot be transmitted through touch. It’s just not that easy, said Linsey Marr, an airborne infectious disease researcher and professor at Virginia Tech. “I think the infected person should have wiped their nose with their hand or spit it out. Somehow have a lot of virus in there and then shake the other person’s hand,” said the civil and environmental engineering professor. “And then the other person touches their eyes or [goes] in their noses or in their mouths.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leader of the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic, told a Wall Street Journal podcast in April 2020 that he didn’t think “we should ever shake hands again.” (Shawn Thew/The Associated Press) But Marr said there are “a lot of losses along the way” and that only a fraction of the virus will be transferred to their hands. “It’s not like everything is transferred from one person to another,” he said. While surfaces were thought to be at high risk for transmission, research shows they play a minor role and aerosols are more important. The biggest concern would be the close contact that handshakes would have with each other, said Abraar Karan, an infectious disease specialist and researcher at Stanford University. “The concern is not so much that someone will have it in their hand and take it from you. The bigger concern is that you’re actually very close to someone and they’re breathing close to you and you’re getting infected that way,” Karan said. He said while it is “theoretically possible” for the virus to be transmitted through hand-to-hand contact, “I don’t think it’s a big concern.” Meanwhile, some research shows that despite the science, the handshake took a few hits during the pandemic.
And it’s not clear whether people are still willing to embrace the gesture as readily as before the pandemic.

Gradual return

Kristin Nelson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Emory University, co-authored an article in Science That said, some population studies in the US and Europe reveal that although handshakes and other types of physical contact have been on an extended hiatus, they are only gradually returning. For example, research shows that contacts are less likely to involve physical touch now than before the pandemic and that covering remains common, the article says. Bernadette Walker, left, and Deborah Johnson bump elbows as they arrive for a worship service in Austell, Ga. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Associated Press) “When you ask people how many contacts you had today or yesterday where you actually touched someone, shook their hand or some other physical touch – that’s actually a lower number than it was before the pandemic started,” Nelson said. But Juliana Schroeder, an assistant professor of organizational management at Berkeley Haas University of California, who has done research on the gesture, suggested that the handshake will likely return in full form because it’s one of those memorable rituals that should transmitted through generations. “That’s why they have those … physical characteristics that are characterized by some repetition and some formality, some symbolism,” he said. “They’re kind of easily ingrained. And so the handshake is definitely one of them. It’s almost like second nature for people to extend their hand when they see a new person.”