Orlando couple launches 'Stop the Handshake' campaign in response to coronavirus
ORLANDO, Fla. - Coronavirus is on everyone’s mind right now and one Orlando couple thinks they may have figured out a way to help stop the spread of the virus.
They have launched a campaign encouraging people to stop shaking hands.
“I’ll do a fist pump first, an elbow bump,” said Robert Howells, an Orlando resident.
“I just wash my hands constantly and if I see somebody a little droopy, I stay away from them,” said Pat Flores, an Orlando resident.
“I don’t shake people’s hands, in general,” said Lindsaey Schwarz, an Orlando resident.
The coronavirus has people thinking twice about how they say hello.
“Do we really need to be shaking hundreds of hands every week?” said Rebecca Amundson, founder of “Stop the Handshake.”
Amundson launched “Stop The Handshake,” a campaign urging people to limit unnecessary physical contact.
(stopthehandshake.com / FOX 35 Orlando)
“Becoming a new mother was the first reason that really got me into the whole "Stop the Handshake" movement, protecting myself and protecting my daughter has become my first and top priority,” Amundson said.
Along with her husband Rich, the couple is selling pins to folks who want to join the movement of avoiding germs passed by the shake of a hand.
“That’s the best way to let people know that you’re not a hand-shaker. You prefer a wave, you prefer a smile or even an elbow,” Amundson said.
The pins could help avoid an awkward hand rejection.
Amundson hopes with time that alternative greetings will be the norm.
“Right now, it may come off as rude to some people, but I think that, overall, if we can start wearing the pins, spreading the message, we can stop spreading the germs and that’s the most important thing,” Amundson said.
The couple expanded the line of merchandise to include hats and even a onesie reading “can’t touch this” for the little ones who are too young to reject a shake.
The pins sold out on the first day of the campaign.
The couple has already ordered more and those are going fast.