9 Rude Behavior People Think Are Polite, Thanks to Coronavirus

You refuse hugs

If someone wants to hug you and you refuse them, you may be considered rude, but now, this behavior has become normal. 

“I won’t hug my patients anymore because I think the thought of a human touch scares anyone these days!” says Tanya Kormeili, MD, FAAD, a board-certified dermatologist with the Derm & Rejuvenation Institute in Santa Monica, Calif. “As much as I miss hugs, I am scared that we would be potentially infecting one another, and everyone we touch thereafter.”

 

You refuse to shake hands

Even though many people think that refusing to shake hands is a rude behavior, nowadays, it has become a safe way to protect ourselves. 

“You want to avoid close personal contact, including not shaking hands when you greet someone,” explains board-certified family physician Monique May, MD.

Instead of shaking hands, you can “use a wave of the hand in greeting,” suggests etiquette expert Marie Betts-Johnson, president of the International Protocol Institute of California.