Practice Management Alert

Question: I’ve noticed that elbow bumps have replaced the handshake and high five and hug since the COVID-19 pandemic started, but I don’t feel like it’s safe, and I don’t want to recommend it to patients if it’s not. Has there been any research into the safety of the elbow bump?

Missouri Subscriber

Answer: Elbow bumps probably aren’t a safe way to make contact while also avoiding transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, researchers say. In the June 2020 Journal of Public Health, Haixia Liu, Liang Gao, and Chenyu Sun note that before the COVID-19 pandemic, many people employed the etiquette of coughing or sneezing into their elbows instead of their hands. However, SARS-CoV-2 has been found to survive on cloth surfaces for up to 8 hours; additionally, bumping elbows would put the participants within 6 feet of one another. Since it’s not convenient to change clothes after every cough or sneeze, nor recommended to violate social distancing guidelines, the researchers say that the elbow bump probably is not safe.