King Henry VI of England banned kissing in 1439 to battle the plague. As the world confronts the coronavirus spreading from China, some health authorities are again urging people to refrain from physical displays of affection.
Epidemiologists say limiting contact could help slow the march of a disease that’s turned up in dozens of countries in just two months and killed more than 2,700 people. Americans ought to think twice about bro hugs and high fives, they say, while the French and Italians might want to reconsider their traditional pecks on the cheek.
“If coronavirus is circulating in your community, it’s a very prudent thing to do,” said Michael Osterholm, an expert on infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota. “It’s one of the few things you can do yourself to actively reduce your risk.”
Photo: Reuters
In Italy, where infections are surging and 11 have died from a virus that spreads through droplets contained in coughs and sneezes, people are starting to embrace the advice. Giorgia Nigri, a 36-year-old economist in Rome, said people have become less willing to pucker up.
“People in groups have started suggesting we don’t give each other the double kiss on the cheek as a greeting or goodbye anymore,” Nigri said. “I was caught off guard and upset by that at first. But I suppose in larger groups, especially with strangers, it makes sense.”
VALENTINE’S DAY
Elsewhere in Europe, such suggestions have provoked surprise or derision: In the UK over Valentine’s Day, tabloids including the Daily Mail and the Sun bemoaned virologist John Oxford’s advice that Britons should remain “standoffish” rather than engaging in touchy-feely greetings.
Some churches in Italy have stopped placing communion wafers on the tongue, putting them in people’s hands instead. Others have canceled services altogether. Public health authorities in Singapore, India, Russia and Iran have gone public with calls to avoid hugs, kisses and handshakes.
“We needn’t alter our habits for the rest of our lives,” Oxford, who teaches at Queen Mary University in London, said in a phone interview. “All I’m suggesting is until this crisis is resolved.”
That may be easier in countries such as Japan where the traditional greeting is a bow, and physical contact among colleagues or business partners is shunned. Some social historians say curtsies may also have evolved in Europe as a response to the declining popularity of greeting people with the lips.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) amused a crowd in Beijing in a rare public visit earlier this month by saying it’d be better not to shake hands.
The World Health Organization doesn’t go so far as to recommend a blanket halt to hugs and kisses, but its guidelines imply that it might not be such a bad idea.
ONE METER
The Geneva-based body recommends avoiding physical greetings with people showing symptoms and to keep at least one meter of social distance. Bruce Aylward, head of a fact-finding mission the WHO and China sent to the outbreak’s epicenter of Wuhan, on Monday praised China’s social distancing and self-protection measures for slowing the spread of the outbreak.
Arnaud Fontanet, an epidemiologist who heads Institut Pasteur’s Global Health department in Paris, also advises “common sense measures” like coughing in one’s sleeve, relying on single-use tissues and washing hands frequently.
Some scientists are concerned the virus could also be shed via feces or through particles so small they can get through common surgical masks. Unlike cousins such as SARS and MERS, it doesn’t cause obvious symptoms in everyone it infects, giving the pathogen a stealthy advantage.
“This war involves everyone, not just people in hazmat suits or scientists,” Oxford said. “You only need one person to mess up the thing and you’re in trouble.”
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located