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Jobs working with Wildlife
• Wildlife Rehabilitator
• Conservation Officer
• Marine Veterinarian Tech

The History & Germ-Ridden Future of the Handshake

The handshake has been around for a long time. It has been used by individuals upon meeting or parting with someone for the first time, greeting & leaving friends, as a token of gratitude, congratulations, a sign of good sportsmanship in competitive activities, or in a business relationship, especially as a sign of finalizing a business or diplomatic agreement. Although there are other physical forms of greeting in other cultures, the handshake is fairly universal in its use. Agreements are said to be officially sealed once a handshake occurs. A handshake is used to express respect, confidence, and equality between parties.

Traditionally in the US handshakes are done barehanded. A good handshake is firm, performed with the right hand while standing erect & making eye contact. Participants loosely follow a two-second rule, smile, & greet each other by name, or if meeting for the first time, offer their own name. Shaking hands is a ritual ingrained in our culture. It will be interesting to see if the handshake survives in the future.

It has been understood for many years that the handshake is a leading cause of spreading microbial pathogens. Prior to the COVID pandemic, greeting rituals were customary in almost all known cultures of the world. After the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, medical scientists, virologists & Doctors strongly recommended the end of the ritualistic handshake. Yet it did not die. After two years of the COVID19 Pandemic, perhaps we as a culture might more readily embrace alternative greeting gestures. Many are out there- a wave, the fist bump, the Namaste', elbow touch, foot tap, the stop-bow-and-nod, the ‘live long & prosper sign, long-distance high fives, miming a fist bump, some sort of salute, air kisses, the grasp & greet, or a simple bow to name just a few.

If you forget not to shake someone’s hand or they reach to shake yours, make sure to wash your hands as soon as possible. Or keep hand sanitizer with you to use. The tendency to ‘shake hands’ is not going to go away soon, most probably. After all, it has been around since at least the 5th century BC.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

— Unknown (often attributed to Mark Twain or Agatha Christie)