With sanitation efforts at an all-time high thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus quickly spreading across the globe, some Star Trek fans have come up with a solution to help keep hands clean: replace the handshake with the Vulcan salute.
The Vulcan salute is performed by holding up your hand with your palm facing the person you’re greeting like a high-five, then parting your middle and ring fingers to form a “V” with two fingers on each side. The popular gesture was coined by Spock actor Leonard Nimoy for the original Star Trek series, which he has gone on record stating was because he felt that “Vulcans were a hand-oriented people.” It first appeared in 1967 during the season 2 episode “Amok Time” alongside the equally popular phrase “live long and prosper.”
Though the gesture might be a sanitary option for greeting someone, it’s been notorious for being difficult for some people to accomplish. Many can’t seem to part their fingers in the required manner, and even a few actors on the set of the original show had to manually position their fingers off-camera before shooting a scene featuring the salute. It’s certainly not as easy as a fist bump, which a lot of people have adopted as an alternative handshake over the years.
In any case, you can see what some fans are saying over on Twitter about it below:
Let's take this opportunity to replace the handshake with the Vulcan salute. It is logical. 🖖 pic.twitter.com/Ke9XmIlLyd
— Trekkie Girls (@TrekkieGirls) March 3, 2020
https://twitter.com/msteven1777/status/1235967475193393152
https://twitter.com/jmmckay1/status/1235968780624257024
To stay safe from coronavirus, give the Vulcan Salute instead of shaking hands https://t.co/heGJfkClcJ
— Bram Boroson (@BramBoroson) March 6, 2020
New reports indicate that the coronavirus is experiencing a surge in the United States and Europe and has now infected over 100,000 people worldwide. As the world continues to fight to fend off the epidemic, it may also create a lot of delays in manufacturing various toys and electronics, including Disney’s new Baby Yoda toy line.
In any case, Star Trek fans using the Vulcan salute to help alleviate fears of becoming infected with the coronavirus is certainly a better option than one Lithuanian man’s decision to lock his wife in a bathroom. Yikes.
