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Coronavirus Has Canceled Handshakes. Now, We Vulcan Salute.

Spock performs Vulcan salute on Star Trek.

Why not live long and prosper by not touching other people? In the midst of coronavirus fears, many have decided not to touch anyone else, and if you’re like me, you started to bring your own bottle of Lysol around with you and threaten to spray anyone who comes close enough.

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Star Trek fans have the best solution to dealing with other human beings, though. Instead of just writing off all human interaction (which is still maybe my plan), you can take a lesson from our good ol’ friend Spock. A Vulcan from the planet Vulcan would look at his friends in Starfleet and simply say, “Live long and prosper” to them.

It’s a time-honored tradition of Star Trek fans, and many of us have greeted one another in this way, but now, it’s a good way of not touching one another being but still being polite.

So, as we can see, Star Trek fans get it. The joy of being a nerd means we already don’t really like dealing with other people, but the truth is this is as much fun as it is practical.

Here’s my pitch: What if, instead, we really just did this? No one takes offense, everyone gets the message of “protect yourself,” and we all get to be nerdy for a brief, fleeting moment? It’s either this, or prepare for me to straight up put hand sanitizer in your hand before I ever think of touching you.

Minimizing the spread of coronavirus is up to all of us, and it’s important to remember that people are gross, so either don’t touch humans or give them the Vulcan salute. That’s it.

(via ComicBook.com)

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Rachel Leishman
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh.

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