Spain has already said goodbye to the . It only continues to be mandatory in certain spaces: hospitals, public transport and pharmacies.
So after more than two years, we are taking steps towards the long-awaited old normality with pre-pandemic customs. And one of them is the two kisses on the cheek when greeting.
In our country, the most common way to introduce yourself to a stranger, apart from smiling and saying their name, is by giving them two kisses. This only happens in a few countries like Spain, Italy and some parts of Greece.
In the rest of the world, the handshake is the greeting par excellence, which in Spain, however, is reduced to very specific situations.
With the arrival of the coronavirus, and the implementation of measures to avoid contagion, bumping elbows became a new way of greeting, despite the fact that the World Health Organization also advised against it. The reason is that it prevented maintaining a safe distance. And maybe that’s why we ended up bumping fists.
But his recommendation was even more austere and was limited to placing our hands on our hearts.
But now, with the end of masks in closed spaces, the debate has been reopened:
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How should we greet each other between non-cohabitants? Two kisses? Handshake? Adopt the Japanese bow?
The mouth, a breeding ground for bacteria
According to a study from the Netherlands, published in the scientific journal , a kiss on the mouth lasting just ten seconds transfers 80 million bacteria.
Different when it comes to regular partners, since in this case the researchers have verified that they share most of the bacteria present in the mouth. And this is because the salivary microbiota (the germs present in the salivary glands) becomes similar among those people who give an average of nine kisses a day on the mouth.
The explanation, the study emphasizes, is lifestyle.
If they are cohabiting, they point out, they tend to have a similar diet and very similar oral hygiene habits.
An important issue because, as the lead author points out, Remco Kort:
- “Kissing with full tongue contact and saliva exchange appears to be a courtship behavior unique to humanity, but is common in more than 90% of cultures.”
But while the number of bacteria that can be transmitted with just a few seconds of kissing may come as a big surprise, it’s a relatively low number when compared to the total number of microorganisms in saliva: 1.2 billion.
We talk all the time about passionate kisses on the mouth.
In the case of the typical two kisses on the cheeks, the data confirms that they can greatly increase the risk of catching a virus that, until the end of the masks, had become residual.
We are talking about respiratory diseases, such as colds or the flu, which have reappeared in an unusual way this spring.
According to data from the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), last year. But since the end of January, the positivity rate has increased progressively to reach 41% in the last days of March.
Is it better to shake hands?
Many may think that shaking hands is not related to the transmission of bacteria, but they would be wrong.
An estimate that on our hands there are an average of 3,200 bacteria of 150 different species. Of course, it has been shown that, for example, he is not infected by contact with a surface. Scientific evidence has made it clear that the only route of transmission of the virus is through aerosols.
The research also points out that women “have a higher number of microorganisms on the palms of their hands than men.”
And according to one of the authors, Professor Noah Fierer:
“The large number of bacteria detected on the hands of the study participants was a great surprise, as was the higher number we found on the hands of the women.”
“The study also shows that the diversity of bacteria on hands were not significantly affected by regular hand washing.”
“But the vast majority of bacteria are not pathogenic, and some of them even protect against the spread of their own pathogens“.
For all this, as specified by another of the authors of the research, Rob Knight: “from the point of view of public health, regular hand washing has a very positive effect.”
And, it is that, little by little, the kisses are returning after the pandemic. But, despite what we might believe, a simple handshake can transmit more bacteria than a kiss (even if it does not mean the spread of a disease). And this is because we do everything with our hands: exchange bills and coins, touch a railing or open a door.