- Sometimes people go in for a handshake
and then pull you in for a kiss on the cheek.
(person screams)
(heart beating)
As some U.S. states
begin to ease their lockdown restrictions,
the future of handshakes and greeting our friends
via touch remains uncertain.
And with people returning back to work
and businesses opening back up,
you might be curious to know
just how easily coronavirus can spread from person to person
based on the type of greeting
and personal interaction they use.
Should you be shaking hands, fist bumping,
elbow touching to greet one another?
And what about a hug?
Is it banned for good?
I'll explain.
The urge to reach out physically
is deeply wired into us as human beings.
Did you know shaking hands is the most common form
of social touch in the United States?
The handshake is thought to have originated centuries ago
as a form of assurance
that neither party was carrying a weapon.
It signals trust, cooperation, and respect.
Nowadays coming out of this quarantine,
we're guaranteed to be faced with a lot of awkwardness
as people try to figure out just how to greet one another.
Awkward thoughts like will I get the coronavirus
by shaking this person's hand?
What about a fist bump?
How many germs do hands carry exactly?
Is an elbow bump better?
Should I just avoid hugging altogether?
And don't even get me started on the cheek kiss.
Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Wagner.
I'm a board-certified emergency medicine physician,
and on my show, I answer your urgent medical questions
and clear up myths about certain ailments
and deadly diseases.
Handshakes are just one of the few forms of touch
that have evaporated during this global pandemic.
Heck, add hugs, high fives, fist bumps, back pats,
and all the little points of contact
that we make when we stand closer than six feet apart.
How much of a Petri dish are our hands?
Older studies have found that healthcare workers
carry up to five million bacteria on each hand.
Wow!
But that's why we're really vigilant about washing our hands
before and after every patient encounter.
Even door handles and bathroom sink faucets
are believed to contain up to 229,000 germs per square inch,
and the toilet handle alone
contains 38 bacteria per square inch.
Should we stop shaking hands?
As of right now, perhaps.
This is not the time to start coming up
with a new handshake between friends.
Social distancing does work, so let it work.
We need to continue practicing social distance
so that we can gradually ease restrictions down the line.
If we start gathering at a time
when the curve might be starting to bend,
we will only see the numbers go back up.
What about if I wash my hands after I shake someone's hand?
Good question.
Many of us don't generally practice good, proper hygiene.
Shocking, I know.
"But Dr. Wagner,
"I wash my hands with soap and water for 20 seconds."
But do you wash the end of your arms as well?
Individuals typically don't.
Improper hand-washing results in a germ playground
at the of our arms that can still cause germs
to be transferred to another person.
The CDC estimates that 80% of all infections
are transferred by hand.
That's an incredibly high statistic.
Washing your hands directly after handshaking with someone
is one way to go about things, but here's a thought.
What if you can eliminate handshaking altogether,
and do we really want that?
So what's a good way to show professionalism
in your meetings or another safe way to greet people
you come into contact with?
A fist bump, a high five, the elbow bump?
Biochemist David Whitworth
studied handshakes in his lab in 2014
and found that high-fiving
cuts bacteria transmission in half,
and fist bumping is even better.
10 times more bacteria get exchanged in a handshake
than in a fist bump.
Elbow bumps just don't quite cut the mustard
when it comes to human connectivity.
We typically tend to sneeze or cough into our elbows.
Therefore, I would recommend keeping the elbow bumping
to a limit.
If you think elbow bumps and handshakes are bad,
doorknobs may just take the cake on it.
Viruses can spread 40 to 60% of an entire building
from a single door knob in mere hours.
So to recap, highest transferred bacteria, handshakes.
Lowest transferred bacteria, fist bumps.
High five is in the middle.
Fist bump, less than 10% of the bacteria
gets transmitted compared to a handshake.
Explanation?
Handshakes have a greater surface area to contact
for a longer period of time.
What about hugging?
Just don't do it for now.
If you want to limit the risk of the number of germs spread,
it's advised that each person engaging in a hug
turns their head the other way
to avoid the other person's face as much as possible.
What about kissing?
Every kiss begins with eight million germs.
Research suggests that just 10 seconds of lip-locking
can transmit 80 million germs.
Kissing can transmit many germs,
including those that cause cold sores and tooth decay.
Saliva can transmit various diseases,
which means that kissing is a small
but significant health risk, in general.
Coronavirus is a respiratory virus,
which means it spreads through respiratory droplets
transmitting through nose, mouth, and eyes.
Think about this.
Sometimes people go in for a handshake
and then pull you in for a kiss on the cheek.
(person screaming)
What do you do?
Especially if you don't want a kiss?
You can use it handshake as a barrier to stop someone
when they wanna pull you in for a kiss.
So your hand is in between your body and their body.
You can just push it out a little bit further away from you,
and that way it'd be kind of stopping them.
And then gently place your opposite hand on their shoulder
so it feels as though
they're getting some physical contact with you,
but you're really stopping them from coming any closer.
Is there an alternative to greeting people then?
Of course, there is.
There are already a lot of non-contact options.
Individuals have practiced contactless greetings
way before COVID-19 barged in.
Bowing, for example, is an alternative
very widely practiced around the world
and has been accredited
for fewer deaths due to coronavirus in Thailand.
Then there is waving, nodding, smiling,
and other nonverbal hand signals
that don't involve physical contact.
Maybe give your neighbor a little hat tip
the next time you see them.
Six feet away, of course.
If you feel that personal connections
are harder to form when talking to somebody six feet away
or through a webcam, you're not alone.
But at the moment, it is what we have.
We are humans and we know through lots of previous research
that we respond well to touch in all forms.
I don't think we should get rid of contact
with each other altogether.
We just have to be aware
and make sure we are washing our hands
much better than we did before
and continue to wear those masks.
All right, that's been your five minutes of greetings
in the age of coronavirus with me, Dr. Wagner.
As a friendly reminder, keep your social distance,
practice good hygiene by washing your hands,
and avoid crowded places if you can.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
hand-washing can reduce the number of people who get sick
with diarrhea and respiratory illnesses up to 50%.
Sound off below in the comments
with any medical questions that you might have for me.
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Thank you so much for watching.
Stay healthy, my friends.