Scientists urged Boris Johnson to tell people to stop shaking hands

Scientists were urging Boris Johnson to tell people to stop shaking hands the same day the PM was boasting about shaking hands with ‘everybody’, it was revealed today. 

Newly-released records on the advice given to the government as the coronavirus crisis erupted show Mr Johnson seemingly flouted the recommendations from his own experts.

A meeting of the behavioural group that feeds into SAGE on March 3 concluded that ‘Government should advise against greetings such as shaking hands and hugging, given existing evidence about the importance of hand hygiene’. 

‘A public message against shaking hands has additional value as a signal about the importance of hand hygiene,’ the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) said. 

‘Promoting a replacement greeting or encouraging others to politely decline a proffered hand-shake may have benefit.’

However, that evening Mr Johnson told a press conference in Downing Street that he ‘continued to shake hands’ and the important thing was washing them.   

He said: ‘I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands. 

‘People obviously can make up their own minds but I think the scientific evidence is… our judgement is that washing your hands is the crucial thing.’ 

Over subsequent days Mr Johnson was seen shaking hands with celebrities and dignitaries. 

Among other revelations in the huge SAGE document dump today: 

• Scientists warned on the day lockdown became official that the advice was not working and there had to be a ‘hard-hitting emotional messaging’ to convey ‘personal threat’. They said talk of ‘herd immunity’, fueled by the government’s own advisers, might be partly to blame; 
• There are serious concerns that ‘immunity certificates’ will be socially divisive if an effective test for coronanvirus antibodies is developed. Employers could shun those without immunity, and desperate people could try to get infected deliberately, according to a paper last month; 
• A ‘traffic light’ system could be used to tell the public what is allowed once lockdown eases, with ‘red’ activities barred, amber for do rarely, and low risk classed as green; 
• As late as March 26, experts were predicting the death toll might be just 10,000 – but it is now over 30,000; 
• On February 3, SAGE estimated that the number of cases in China was ten times that being officially confirmed. 

Mr Johnson dismissed the trend for coronavirus ‘elbow bumps’, and insisted he was following scientific advice. 

At the press conference that night, he asked Sir Patrick Vallance for confirmation, and the chief scientific adviser nodded and said: ‘Wash your hands.’  

Mr Johnson used the greeting with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby as he appeared on This Morning on March 5.

On March 9 he shook hands with boxer Anthony Joshua at Westminster Abbey.

But he subsequently came down with coronavirus, needing hospital treatment. 

There has been heavy criticism of the lack of social distancing in Downing Street and Whitehall, where a series of senior figures have been infected.

There are claims that meeting rooms were crowded well into the crisis, despite social distancing being crucial.  

The SAGE evidence published today shows that at a meeting shortly before the Prime Minister ordered the UK’s coronavirus lockdown on March 23, scientists warned that previous guidance was not tough enough.

It said there had to be ‘hard-hitting emotional messaging’ and convey ‘personal threat’.

The paper drawn up by behavioural science experts said: ‘The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging.

‘To be effective this must also empower people by making clear the actions they can take to reduce the threat.’

The document suggested that ‘communication strategies should provide social approval for desired behaviours and promote social approval within the community’.

It also noted that ‘social disapproval from one’s community can play an important role in preventing anti-social behaviour’ but ‘this needs to be carefully managed to avoid victimisation, scapegoating and misdirected criticism’.