Akademik

n.

The touching of elbows used as a handshake replacement to avoid spreading germs.

In the 2011 movie "Contagion," a chef in Macao initiates a global pandemic by failing to wash before shaking hands with the character played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Nathan Wolfe, a virologist at Stanford, has said that the Japanese bow and a move called "the safe shake," which involves touching elbows, are potentially less risky than the traditional handshake.

—David Owen, " Hands Across America: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=2013-03-04 (subscription required)," The New Yorker, March 4, 2013

A leading scientist has suggested that handshakes should be abandoned for less "risky" alternatives because they are a prime transmitter of disease, especially when epidemics are spreading.

Nathan Wolfe, a virologist at Stanford University in California, suggests using a "safe shake", in which elbows instead of hands are touched to avoid the spread of illnesses such as flu.

—Jonathan Leake and Robin Henry, " Keep flu at bay with a safe shake: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/Next_week/UK_News/Science/article794324.ece," The Sunday Times, October 9, 2011

For the past 24 hours, Fred and I have been doing what we call, the "safe shake."

—Eric Hirshberg and Fred Goldring, TED presentation: http://safeshake.org/media/TED.mov, TED 2009, February 3, 2009