Posted on 02/12/2006 9:11:01 PM PST by neverdem
TO the pantheon of social arbiters who came up with the firm handshake, the formal bow and the air kiss, get ready to add a new fashion god: the World Health Organization, chief advocate of the "elbow bump."
If the avian flu goes pandemic while Tamiflu and vaccines are still in short supply, experts say, the only protection most Americans will have is "social distancing," which is the new politically correct way of saying "quarantine."
But distancing also encompasses less drastic measures, like wearing face masks, staying out of elevators — and the bump. Such stratagems, those experts say, will rewrite the ways we interact, at least during the weeks when the waves of influenza are washing over us.
It has happened before, and not just in medieval Europe, where plague killed a third of the continent's serfs, creating labor shortages that shook the social order. In the United States, the norms of casual sex, which loosened considerably in the 1960's with penicillin and the pill, tightened up again in the 1980's after AIDS raised the penalty.
But influenza is more easily transmitted than AIDS, SARS or even bubonic plague, so the social revolution is likely to focus on the most basic goal of all: keeping other people's cooties at arm's length. The bump, a simple touching of elbows, is a substitute for the filthy practice of shaking hands, in which a person who has politely sneezed into a palm then passes a virus to other hands, whose owners then put a finger in an eye or a pen in a mouth. The bump breaks that chain. Only a contortionist can sneeze on his elbow.
Dr. Michael Bell, associate director for infection control at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has done the bump a few times already...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The pre-school hygiene for the last fifteen years or so (which we moms have also picked up) is to cough into the crook of your elbow. So "swing your partner" is definitely out but "dosey do" is still ok, I guess.
Mrs VS
And how do you keep those nasty little germs from marching down your arm from the crook of your elbow to the palm of your hand?
I vote for keeping the kids at home during any epidemic.
Another reason to homeschool.
In more polite society the neckties are used for coughing and blowing one's nose into.
Fine with me, but I usually cough in the crook of my elbow. It was a trick my older daughter's preschool teacher taught them to do, and I have done since.
Where is the "Extreme Mindless Stupidity" bump?
Instead, how about the hysterical fear mongering bump?
We're all gonna die!!!
why introduce something that doesn't make sense?
If they don't want to touch, then why not just bow like the Japanese, or put the hands palms together in front of the face and bow?
Are you referring to elbow bump? Ask WHO's boss. I had to read it a couple of times to understand it.
"Where is the "Extreme Mindless Stupidity" bump?"
Indeed, and the "my father must be rolling in his grave that such gibberish is being published by the NY Times" bump.
if that Avian Flu hits the States, I'm imposing total self-quarantine - otherwise, I flat out guarantee you I'll get it and die. I get flus, and even normal ones hammer the hell out of me.
I go to prison meetings and at the end we hold hands and say a prayer. Many or most of the prisoners clench their fists and just put them on top of each other. I always thought it was a macho thing but last week with another virus going around their I thought maybe it's just smart.
Watch out for secondary bacterial pneumonias caused by Staph.
oddly, I generally *don't* get bacterial infections.
viruses, yes. bacteria, no.
working in a medical office, I'm constantly exposed to both.
Is that the "chicken dance" or are you just trying to say hello?
I simply have difficulty accepting anything that rag has to say about any subject as being factual or even helpful.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.