The custom of shaking hands began as a way of showing that neither party was armed. I’ve always been armed, with, well, arms. To be disarmed, meaning have no arms, would defeat the purpose of shaking hands as it would be tough to do any real damage without hands, let alone hold a weapon.
We were previously a society of hand touchers and it's been a common way to say hello. Then someone realized the disconnect, we can't shake and cough in the same place, and correct place to cough or sneeze got moved 12" to the elbow. With the recent events and the breaking of the the tradition of hand touching, the appropriate way to touch someone has been deemed elbow-to-elbow, and now I need a new place to cough.
