Dr. Fauci Says He Doesn't Think Americans Should Ever Shake Hands Again to Prevent Spread of Coronavirus

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director, said Americans should never shake hands again, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus and other diseases.

The leading infectious disease expert on President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force told the Wall Street Journal that an end to handshaking would be good for reducing future transmissions of the novel coronavirus and would also cut the number of influenza cases.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Journal podcast, the NIAID director hoped to see "light at the end of the tunnel" by the end of April.

Speaking about the eventual return to normal life, Dr. Fauci said: "When you gradually come back, you don't jump into it with both feet. You say what are the things you could still do and still approach normal. One of them is absolute compulsive hand washing. The other is you don't ever shake anybody's hands."

He also suggested that people might want to wear "cloth face protection" if they could not avoid being within six feet of others as life starts its return to normal.

When the host Kate Linebaugh pointed out that Fauci and others on the coronavirus task force did not stand six feet apart at pandemic briefings, the disease expert said: "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good here. The task force group is a little bit different.

"Since we're around the president... it's got to be clear that we're not endangering him. So I get tested frequently and I get my temperature taken eight, nine times a day. Every time you go into a different room in the White House you get your temperature taken.

"So I don't think you should judge the use or not of masks and physical separation what you see with the task force for the rest of the country, it really is different."

Asked to paint a picture of what life may look like once the worst of the novel coronavirus has passed, Dr. Fauci said he could see the country phasing back to normality by doing such things as limiting the number of people who can be at a restaurant or event at any one time.

"But can I as a resident of New York City hug my 77-year-old mother with vulnerable respiratory systems?" Linebaugh asked.

"I mean I don't think you should do that now. You're in New York City. You're in a very vulnerable situation in regard to infection," Fauci replied.

"But when this goes down, and gets down to almost zero, when we get to that, then I think what's important... there is an antibody test that will be widely distributed pretty soon, in the next few weeks, that will allow you to know whether or not you've actually been infected."

He said: "I can imagine a situation where you take an antibody test and you are absolutely positive that you were infected and you did well, then you could hug the heck out of your grandmother and not worry about it."

Later in the podcast, Trump's top coronavirus doctor said: "I don't think we're ever going to get back to free-flying lack of attention to what transmissibility of infections are. I think that people are going to be careful.

"I don't think we should ever shake hands ever again, to be honest with you. Not only would it be good to prevent coronavirus disease, it probably would decrease instances of influenza dramatically in this country."

Newsweek has contacted the NIAID for further comment and will update with any response.

President Trump revealed at the end of last month that social distancing guidelines would be extended until April 30. He also warned that he expected the novel coronavirus death toll to peak in a couple of weeks.

"The peak for death rates is likely to hit in two weeks," Trump said on March 29. "Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before victory is won."

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox Business on Tuesday that he hoped the coronavirus shutdown would not go on for more than eight weeks, adding that the president was looking at how parts of the economy could be reopened.

AngryPenguin501 on April 8th, 2020 at 14:38 UTC »

You know it’s Reddit when most of these people think handshakes are awkward

Dumpenstein3d on April 8th, 2020 at 12:15 UTC »

I once met a man..a long time carpenter.. shook his hands and gave the ole firm grip expecting him to have vice grip hands...he yelled from arthritic pain and ive been giving spaghetti noodle hand shakes ever since..

FenixthePhoenix on April 8th, 2020 at 11:41 UTC »

We should adopt the bow.