America's top notch names recommend Hindu culture of greeting

Fauci, who is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a lead member of the White House Task Force on Coronavirus, said that washing hands should be a must in people's daily routine.

"I don't think we should ever shake hands ever again, to be honest with you," Fauci told a news source in a podcast interview.

"Not only would it be good to prevent coronavirus disease, it probably would decrease instances of influenza dramatically in this country," he said.

Over the past several weeks, Fauci has emerged as a key figure in the war against coronavirus and has been the most vocal against handshakes.

"As a society, just forget about shaking hands. We don't need to shake hands. We've got to break that custom," he told in another interview.

"Because as a matter of fact, that is one of the major ways you can transmit a respiratory-borne illness," he said.

Responding to a question on the possible measures to be taken to contain the spread of the virus, he said, “When you gradually come back, you don't jump into it with both feet.

You say, what are the things you could still do and still approach normal? Well, one of them is absolute compulsive hand-washing and the other is you don't ever shake anybody's hands”, said Fauci.

"Because this is a pandemic, because there is virtually no population immunity, and because we know that people can transmit while being either pre symptomatic or showing minimal symptoms, every handshake that you have runs the risk of exposing you or the person you are shaking hands with to the virus," said William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health.

“Even the elbow bump puts people in closer contact”, said Hanage, recommending the Hindu namaste greeting.