To still not like shaking hands ever since the pandemic

I hate shaking hands. Never quite sure how hard to go, it's a minefield before the hygiene consideration.

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@delatron,HEPA filters would be an overall cost saving though. WHO, Ministry of Defence, Parliament etc addressed indoor air very early in the pandemic.

The fools even have touch screen check in at our hospital's oncology department reception, so basically everyone "checking in" will be immunocompromised due to chemotherapy etc. My DH's haematologist tried to shake his hand at their last face to face consultation! They really don't take cross infection seriously at all.

I mainly shook hands at work. I don’t really have to do it now, so haven’t given it much thought. I rarely get to leave the house now and no longer work - long covid. I hate the irony of going to health appointments where you then catch something. I hate how many people’s lives have been ruined by this illness, or that people think it’s rare, the amount of children with it, the amount of people who will find themselves fucked after this wave.

YANBU OP, but I can control where I put my hands, so this bothers me less than the airborne nature and enforced infection. Children are told to stay away for 48 hours after their last v or d bout, even if they feel ok.They are told to attend with covid, although long covid is not rare in children and can absolutely fuck their lives and education.

I prefer it to hugging, which my manager tried to insist on me doing with a work colleague that likes to get other people into trouble. Needless to say, I said no.

I’m sorry about your DH and I agree with you about hospitals and GPs and these are the places that should be all over it. There should be hepa filters )I know there’s no money but still) constant cleaning. No touch doors,
open windows!!!

Don’t get me started about the touchscreen check in system at my GPs - great idea to get a load of ill people touching the same screen!

Yes I’m agreeing with it. However nobody at any age wants a dose of norovirus. Repeated Covid infections can impact your immune system an each infection you have a 10% risk of long Covid. Lots of children are living with long Covid. This is true for all ages and the most common group for long Covid is women aged 45-55.

What is so bad about wanting to reduce infections? I am self employed if I get ill I lose money. Of course I don’t want to be ill.

Yes, but most people don't take it into account and get too close, too personal, etc, meaning you sometimes have to be quite abrupt to get them to back off and give you space. It's a shame more people don't respect personal space, whether for medical/health reasons or just because some people don't like the "touchy touchy" approach. Some people seem to actually take offence when you say you don't "do" hand shaking or hugging, etc. It was nice during covid when it was normalised not to get into other people's personal space.

Yanbu. I have emetophobia and I hate hand shaking and always have done. But I suppose it's better than someone you've barely met going in to give you a kiss.

You don't have to be in the elderly demographic to be immuno compromised or to have serious underlying health conditions.

Well obviously, but it's more likely.

You don't have to be in the elderly demographic to be immuno compromised or to have serious underlying health conditions.

My DH has had cancer since his early 50s, so everyone in our family practices good hygiene to protect him, as if we catch something, we're highly likely to pass it to him simply by being in the same house. That means not shaking hands, washing hands constantly throughout the day, using hand sanitiser after touching door handles or handrails, or money, etc. No one comes into our home unless absolutely necessary, other than friends and family who know about his condition and respect good hygiene practices themselves.

He says the "only" place he's ever felt "safe" was on a cruise ship due to the precautions, facilities, etc - even there, we didn't let the stewards/cleaners into the cabin, didn't go to the busy restaurants at busy times, etc, but it was an absolute pleasure to see the hand gel stations everywhere, automatic doors, etc.

The place he feels least safe is the GP surgery and our local hospital where no one appears to practice good hygiene and where even the toilets often have empty soap dispensers, etc. We often say it's no surprise at all that viruses sweep through hospital wards in Winter, such as norovirus, c-diff etc as the staff basically ignore airborne viruses and anything they can't see i.e. clear fluids - they're obsessed with blood and will clean it immediately, but aren't remotely interested in touch points, airborne, etc. When we were last in the out patients waiting room, there was a cleaner going round wiping the door handles and light switches, but he was doing it with a dry duster - utterly useless and pointless as you need some kind of cleaning fluid or at least an Anti-Bac wet wipe - it was just to give the impression that things were being cleaned.

No doubt protecting vulnerable passengers is a key factor; but not the driving factor. I was on Icon of the Seas, the demographic is definitely not 70+, it’s very much families, and the focus on hygiene was as high I expect it is on a saga cruise. A norovirus outbreak isn’t good for any cruise ship for a variety of reasons.

I wish we saw these kinds of procedures in hotels and theme parks and other crowded spaces you spend a lot of time in, while not as rife and confined as cruises, crowds of strangers mixing is always a recipe for illness. If people had better personal hygiene it wouldn’t be so bad.

Confined space with often a very elderly demographic of passengers. We all know that for someone in their 30s or 40s a dose of Covid or norovirus is unpleasant and spoils your holiday. For a passenger in their 80s or 90s with underlying conditions it's a whole other ball game and on ship the last thing they want is to have the medical centre full and potentially having to airlift very sick people off the ship.

Yes I don’t see why infection control in a confined space like this is a bad thing. I love the automatic toilet flushes. One less thing to touch. I think they help.

I'm fine with shaking hands. Germs are everywhere, there's no point in stressing about hand shakes when you open doors, touch bathroom taps, go on the bus/taxi/train, mix with people, handle money and so on.

You’re lumping lots of things together there when it’s more about risk reduction. Hugging children - of course. I hugged mine and sat with them when they had Covid - I had friends who wouldn’t.

I don’t avoid crowded places and travel. I hug my friends.

I just try and be careful about touching certain things such as loo handles (people have just been to the loo and not washed hands get!). I don’t touch the poles on the tube. And I just wash my hands more often or carry sanitizer. No massive impact on life.

I LOVED our cruise for this reason. Automatic toilet doors and literally everything else automatic in there, staff and sinks outside the dining rooms reminding people to wash their hands, I wish every toilet had a staff member singing “wishy washy” by the sink because clearly a lot of people need it!

Nobody thought twice about wiping trollet handles and the rest of it before March 2020. Or shaking hands.

The ONLY place where I have seen these sorts of precautions remain was on a cruise ship I was working on, the average passenger age was late 70s, no shaking hands with crew/captain at photo ops, use a paper towel to open toilet doors, regular reminders about handwashing/sanitising. But they were 100 times more concerned about norovirus than they were about covid.

Or friends and family?

Saw someone fully sneeze into their hands at the grocery store today. So, there you go. 🤢

Honestly I’m with you. People are disgusting, the amount of women who walk out of the toilets without washing their hands, it makes me despair. I’m not generally a clean freak and am pretty chill in my own home, but other people ate gross.

It’s good manners , etiquette - you shake hands and say your name. There doesn’t need to be a benefit , though social bonding I suppose. Historically were you showing you had no weapon?

Doesn’t bother me but I don’t do it often

I love shaking hands. It’s such an easy way to greet a new person.

the only time I’ve ever thought about hand hygiene was when our tour group parted ways with the yak handler in Nepal, after three weeks of no washing and yak wrangling he was filthy! May have had a surreptitious wet wipe after that hand shake.