Science

The Skip the Shake wristband is designed to help you do the following three things:

1. Reminds you to practice good hand hygiene
2. Clearly and politely communicates to others that you would rather not shake hands. Instead, you would rather greet others in some other healthy way.
3. Helps you to stop shaking hands, so you reduce the transfer of germs from hand to hand.

The Skip the Shake wristband is not designed to indicate, prevent, diagnose, or cure any disease.

Reminds You to Practice Good Hand Hygiene

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have stated that properly washing hands is the number one way to prevent communicable diseases.

We choose a wristband for the Skip the Shake movement to help remind you to practice good hand hygiene.  A wristband is on your wrist after all — right next to your hands — to remind you to do the following:

1. Wash your hands frequently.  Especially after sneezing.
2. Do not touch your face — your mouth, nose, and eyes
3. When you do sneeze.  Sneeze into your elbow or tissue.  If you use a tissue, then throw it away immediately.  Then wash your hands.

The Skip the Shake wristband helps you to create new, healthier habits.

Clearly and Politely Communicate Your Greeting Preferences

The Skip the Shake wristband also helps you communicate your preferences to not shake hands.

The practice of shaking hands is an ancient custom used to show that two people did not carry weapons.  Instead, they were greeting each other in peace.  While we may have given up much of this hand-to-hand combat, we have picked up germ warfare.  Handshakes transfer germs from one person to another.

But, when you stop shaking hands, your decision can be seen as a social snub.  A refusal to shake hands can be perceived as rude or a critique of someone’s health or socioeconomic status.

Consider the case of a doctor and her patient.  The doctor has a desire to not shake hands with her patients to prevent the spread of germs from one patient to another.  She wants everyone to be healthier.  But, when patient offers to shake hands with the doctor, the doctor does not have a clear way to signal her preference to not shake hands.  Moreover, the patient may interpret this refusal as a personal critique of his socioeconomic or health status.  He may personalize the perceived snub.  He could interpret the interaction as a sign that to doctor see him as dirty, unclean, or untouchable.

The Skip the Shake wristband gives the doctor a clear signal as to her preference to not shake hands.  And, it also reinforces to the patient that her desire is not because of the patients health or socioeconomic status.  Instead, it is a general preference of the doctor across all her patients and colleagues.  With the Skip the Shake wristband, the doctor can express her preference to not shake hands clearly and politely.

Helps you Stop Shaking Hands, so You can Reduce the Transfer of Germs

During an Ebola outbreak in Africa, the World Health Organization officials choose to greet each other with elbow bumps instead of handshakes.  The Ebola virus can be spread by shaking hands.

The Center for Disease Control has stated that not shaking hands is one of the first things to do when their is an epidemic has reached a certain level.  Stopping shaking hands is the first step in social distancing.  At Skip the Shake, we ask “Why wait?”  Why shake hands unnecessarily when there are other polite and healthier ways to greet people?  We may be able to reduce disease transfer via hand-to-hand contact by not shaking hands right now.