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Flu Spreads New Etiquette

John Stevenson hasn’t stopped patronizing the local gym, but after his workout, he is wiping down his machines with spray disinfectant and paper towels. Sales associate Janet Lininger is having customers swipe their own credit cards (she’s relieved to have recently shifted from the intimate-apparel section to the far-less-cozy handbag department).

In ways both discreet and direct, serious and silly, Americans are refiguring their routines and bending their behavior in an attempt to stave off swine flu. Which raises the question: What is the social protocol in the age of a pandemic?

Etiquette experts agree that these are tricky times. “As a society we’re saying that for our safety we need to change basic social interaction,” the kinds of niceties that have been ingrained for generations, says Anna Post, spokeswoman for The Emily Post Institute (and the manners matriarch’s great-great-granddaughter). Considering how global our culture has become — “how many more people we have pinging around the world, exchanging germs” — Post says “this could be the beginning of a huge social shift.”

At work and at restaurants, the swine-flu savvy are offering up dollops of antibacterial gel as though they’re passing out mints. At parties, they’re resisting the urge to double dip. At grocery stores, they’re swabbing cart handles with sanitized wipes. At church, they’re receiving Communion in the hand rather than on the tongue and bypassing the communal chalice and holy water font.

And for those who don’t follow society’s new rules on public hygiene — who, for instance, cough uncovered into a crowded subway car — they’re shooting off the stink eye.

But as the rules are being rewritten — typically on the fly and with little precedent — awkward moments are emerging: an outstretched arm that’s met with merely a nod, a dust-stirred sneeze that requires a sheepish “I-swear-I’m-not-sick” defense.

Contact replacements

When it comes to flu etiquette, “I think a lot of people are confused,” says Jacqueline Whitmore, author of Business Class: Etiquette Essentials for Success at Work.

In September, the women of The View demonstrated how best to safely say hello, with an elbow bump vs. a kiss. Last month, the Today show’s Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb showed off their suggested method: the “heinie” bump, “because you’re not going to spread any germs through your Spanx,” as Gifford put it.

A few weeks ago, the health center medical director at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., sent an e-mail to students recommending they avoid drinking games, which, of course, typically involve spit-swapping via a shared cup.