The Lemon Fool

Is it true that Coronavirus doesn’t get spread on the back of the hand, only the palm? I ask because I have seen people throughout the Covid period bump fists, presumably because they think you cannot catch Covid from the back of the hand. Where did this mentality come from?

my guess would be that when you inevitably and subconsciously touch your face it tends not to be the back of the hand we use.

Arizona11 wrote:Where did this mentality come from?

Fomites, that's where!

In the early days, when folk were leaving their mail to age out before they opened it, there was not much clarity as to how long Sars-COV2 could survive on surfaces, in the form of fomites.

The belief was that you could pick it up from "something" and transfer it to your respiratory tract; whereby catching the spicy cough and expiring.

As most picking up is done with the fingers (one of the advantages of evolving from an ape like creature) different parts of the anatomy were considered safer to offer to others by way of a social greeting e.g. feet, elbows, the back of the hand.
So there is a degree of logic to it.

-sd

servodude wrote:

Arizona11 wrote:Where did this mentality come from?

Fomites, that's where!

In the early days, when folk were leaving their mail to age out before they opened it, there was not much clarity as to how long Sars-COV2 could survive on surfaces, in the form of fomites.

The belief was that you could pick it up from "something" and transfer it to your respiratory tract; whereby catching the spicy cough and expiring.

As most picking up is done with the fingers (one of the advantages of evolving from an ape like creature) different parts of the anatomy were considered safer to offer to others by way of a social greeting e.g. feet, elbows, the back of the hand.
So there is a degree of logic to it.

-sd

'Zackerly.

Back in the beginning shaking hands was considered monumentally stupid as the Covidities was thought to be transmitted by touch. Remember Boris shaking hands with hospital victims then becoming one himself??!! (A victim that is, not a hand.)

So the practice here actually became to bump elbows. I still get customers doing with me this even now, and it feels curiously 'safe'.

Mike4 wrote:So the practice here actually became to bump elbows. I still get customers doing with me this even now, and it feels curiously 'safe'.

Are you working on boilers in morris dancer country?

servodude wrote:

Mike4 wrote:So the practice here actually became to bump elbows. I still get customers doing with me this even now, and it feels curiously 'safe'.

Are you working on boilers in morris dancer country?

Lol nope! (Where IS that anyway?!)

I work the prosperous home counties. Berks, Bucks, Hants, Wilts, Oxon, Cambs, West London, Surrey, places like that.

Plus the occasional excursion into Sussex, Kent, and Essex (but for them feckers "just stop oil" who prevented my planned trip to Colchester today... re-booked for next week instead.)

Mike4 wrote:So the practice here actually became to bump elbows. I still get customers doing with me this even now, and it feels curiously 'safe'.

As long as the customer has not been touching their face with their elbow, you should be ok.


Julian F. G. W.

jfgw wrote:

Mike4 wrote:So the practice here actually became to bump elbows. I still get customers doing with me this even now, and it feels curiously 'safe'.

As long as the customer has not been touching their face with their elbow, you should be ok.


Julian F. G. W.

Unless they use the approved coughing and sneezing into elbow to minimise spread technique. I prefer bumping fists if people are worried. These days I wouldn't worry about shaking hands as the evidence is that most of the spread is through the air not via contact. And being a lab-based scientist, I wash my hands regularly when leaving the lab.