Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Letter: Shake on it

Published 30 October 2013

From Rob Sheldon

In his letter (12 October, p 31), Lawrence D’Oliveiro suggests that a handshake quashes Valerie Curtis’s idea that manners in part evolved to avoid spreading disease (21 September, p 28), because such contact helps spread influenza.

But it is worth noting that handshaking keeps a potential influenza victim at two arms’ lengths, roughly the , which is more of a hazard than touching a surface that has the virus on it. Leeds, UK

Issue no. 2941 published 2 November 2013

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