To fight corona ... neither kissing nor shaking hands

In 1439, King Henry VI of Britain decided to ban kissing between the British to fight the plague. Now the world is facing the spread of the new mutated coronavirus (Covid 19) from China, so some health authorities in the world have called on people to refrain from physical expression of affection such as kissing, shaking hands and hugs.

The German "Robert Koch" Institute announced that the numbers announced so far indicate that the new Corona virus "Covid-19" is more deadly than influenza.

Epidemiologists say reducing the physical contact between people can slow the spread of the virus, which has already reached dozens of countries in about two months, and has killed more than 2,700 people.

"If the Corona virus spreads to your community, commitment to that would make sense," Bloomberg News quoted Michael Ostrholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, as saying, referring to a review of the habit of kissing and hugging, adding that "this" would be one of the few things that can be done. To help them reduce the risks they are exposed to. "

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Health authorities in Singapore, India, Russia and Iran have called on people to avoid hugs, kisses and handshakes to reduce the chances of transmission.

In Italy, where infection is spreading fast and where seven people have died from the Corona virus, which is transmitted by droplets caused by coughing or sneezing, people are already taking this advice.

Georgia Negeri, a 36-year-old economist, says people are less willing to move, adding that "people in their congregations are starting to suggest not to kiss or shake hands, either when meeting or saying goodbye ... I initially felt it was annoying, but over time I saw that It makes sense for large gatherings or with strangers. "

And some churches in Italy stopped the ritual of eating by placing chips of sacred bread in the mouth of the worshipers and started giving them bread in their hands, as other churches canceled the prayers completely due to the spread of the virus.

Elsewhere in Europe, these suggestions have raised eyebrows and ridicule elsewhere in Europe. In Britain, the Daily Mail newspaper on Valentine's Day published the advice of the virologist John Oxford to the British to stop saluting touches and only verbal salutes.

"We will not need to change our habits throughout our lives, but all I suggest is to stick to this until the crisis ends," says Oxford, who teaches at Queen Mary University in London.

Bloomberg says abandoning this habit may be easy in some countries, such as Japan, where greetings are often exchanged by bowing, while avoiding physical contact with salutations among colleagues in the workplace.

Some social historians say that the habit of bowing can be transferred to and spread to Europe, in light of the declining popularity of the greeting exchange with the lips.

In a rare public visit to him earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a crowd of people in the capital, Beijing, that he would prefer to refrain from shaking hands due to the spread of Corona.

Health experts warn that the new SK virus is the "disease X" that is difficult to treat in the foreseeable future. Although the World Health Organization has not reached the point of recommending that the kissing be stopped altogether, the general guidelines it recommends to tackle the virus are against such a bad habit.

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The Geneva-based United Nations organization recommends avoiding exchanging a physical greeting with people who have symptoms of the disease and keeping a separation distance of at least one meter with them while dealing with them.

Bourse Ailord, head of the fact-finding mission sent by the World Health Organization and China to Wuhan, the center of the new outbreak of the new Corona Virus, praised the self-protection measures that city residents had committed to, which had slowed the spread of the disease.

"Common procedures" such as using a handkerchief while coughing, relying on single-use wipes, and washing hands constantly, recommends Arnaud Fontant, an epidemiologist and director of the World Health Department at the Louis Pasteur Institute in France.

Some scientists are concerned that the virus may spread through stools or particles that can be inhaled even with surgical masks.

Unlike similar viruses such as SARS, symptoms of the disease may not appear in a person with the new mutated Coronavirus, which gives the opportunity for the virus to spread unobtrusively.