A few weeks ag o, the economist Tyler Cowen attended a meeting in Manhattan during which Bill Gates briefed him and a small group of other guests on his latest philanthropic endeavors. Cowen was impressed. But one thing that impressed him in particular, as he later wrote on his popular blog, Marginal Revolution, was that Gates had been “smart enough, and health-savvy enough” to begin his presentation without first shaking everyone’s hand.
“He could spend his whole life shaking people’s hands, and basically be sick all the time,” Cowen said later, adding, “I shake hands with people, but I wish the whole custom didn’t exist. I’d rather bow or just pass business cards or something.”
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wear gloves
I lived in Japan for 3 years. No one shakes hands there, yet a huge proportion of the population is afflicted with the common cold. I have spent a great deal of time in Latin America and with Latin American and European friends who routinely kiss each other on the cheek in greeting. The prevalence of colds in these groups seems to be less than that of the Japanese people I knew. The idea that transfer through air is more likely the source of germs is buried more than halfway through the article, whereas the wacky ideas of phobics are given prominence in the article.