Swine flu and handshake

With the all the focus on H1NI or swine flu, questions are being raised about the handshake which, after all, is a key part of business and workplace etiquette.
Back in April when the disease was breaking out, there was advice to avoid greeting people with kisses and handshakes. Similarly, the Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart has written to all priests of the archdiocese of Melbourne asking them asking them, among other things, not to exchange the sign of peace, to prevent the spread of swine flu. “During the Sign of Peace instead of shaking hands, kissing or embracing, as is practised in some parishes, it would be best to simply nod your head and avoid bodily contact.” So what impact would that have on general etiquette?

 

First, there are the warnings from some doctors. Philip M. Tierno Jr., PhD, director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University Medical Centre has told medical newsletters: “Eighty percent of all infectious diseases are transmitted by contact both direct and indirect -- direct such as kissing, indirect such as shaking someone's hand…Frequent hand washing is the single most important weapon we have against disease."
But what impact have on the way people behave with each other? Particularly when so many meetings and interviews end with the ritual handshake? Etiquette experts say that as a preventative measure, there is nothing wrong with not extending your hand to greet people. A smile or a nod will do. For good reason too. After all, history tells us that the first handshakes began in medieval times when knights would offer an open hand to show they were unarmed. It is less necessary these days when you can get acquainted on the phone or on the Net, or for that matter when you are not riding around with a sword.
What about job interviews? What happens when you finish the interview and the person at the other end extends their hand? The Newsday blog quotes etiquette experts saying you have two options. 1. politely decline to shake hands or 2. shake hands, then go to the bathroom and wash.
Of course, there are handshakes and handshakes. Different types of handshakes leave different types of impressions and each will help shape a career. Columnist Nina Spitzer identifies five types of handshakes:

The Dead Fish (weak, limp, and sometimes clammy, easy to slip out of).
The Vice Grip: A bone-breaking grip which you still feel hours later.
The Claw: a claw-like grasp using just your fingers
The Water Pump: Exaggerated up and down movement as if pumping water
The Germ-a-phobic: Quick and barely touching where the person offering the hand appears to be afraid of germs.

The Consumerist site offers new types of handshakes that minimize human contact: the air fist bump, distance handshaking where you go through the motions of shaking hands without actually touching each other, or just standing there and blinking at each other.
Indeed, the fist bump might be the way of the future, particularly with President Obama making it seem so natural and acceptable in last year’s Presidential campaign. The Washington Post called it “the fist bump heard ‘round the world”.
So is hand shaking still acceptable these days when the world is seized in fear of swine flu? What would you do? What are the alternatives?