NPR: Trump won't stop shaking hands with people, and everyone's going to get the coronavirus!

You knew they were going to find a way to blame Trump for this, but I have to say this one is creative:

President Trump, a self-professed germophobe, said Thursday night that despite concerns over transmitting the coronavirus, he will continue to shake hands with people. At a town hall meeting in Scranton, Penn., televised by Fox, Trump was asked if he has made any changes to his habits since the outbreak.

Trump responded that “if there was ever a time where you convince people not to shake hands this could be it.” But Trump went on, “you can’t be a politician and not shake hands.”

In fact, health experts say shaking hands is a practice best avoided as it can easily transmit viruses from one person to the next.

Wouldn’t the world be a jolly place if we all did everything in accordance with what “health experts” say?

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I have no idea where the custom of people shaking hands came from. It’s the sort of thing where you figure it was considered kind of weird the first time someone suggested it.

“Why are we doing this, Bob? How many times do we go up and down? This isn’t really a shake. It’s more like a pump. This is stupid.”

Whatever. It’s what people do and it’s been that way for a long time.

And you know Trump would get criticized no matter what he did. If he stopped shaking hands, the media would attack him for inspiring panic and for being a germophobe. He keeps doing it because that’s what people want from him, and he’s irresponsibly spreading disease.

My own sense is that the panic over the coronavirus is worse than the disease itself. It’s already causing drops in the stock market and it could soon affect economic productivity as people are afraid to show up for work, received delivered goods or get close enough to other people to work together.

Before the coronavirus you could get the flu by shaking people’s hands (if you believe the “health experts”), and that took down its share of people as well – especially if they were old or already sick, which is tending to be the same conditions that kill coronavirus patients. How terrified are we going to allow ourselves to be each and every day of just living life?

Just the past few days I’m pretty sure shook hands with at least six or seven people in the normal course of business, and hugged every member of my family multiple times. It’s a pretty big risk! Life is full of them.