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.

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.

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