America's lead immunologist advising the White House has said hand shaking can no longer continue, even after the pandemic ends .

"As a society, just forget about shaking hands, we don't need to shake hands," the director of the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Disease Dr Anthony Fauci said.

"We've gotta break that custom, because as a matter of fact that is really one of the major ways you can transmit a respiratory-borne illness."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (AP/AAP)

Which, at first glance, might not seem like that big a deal.

After all, we've spent the better part of the last month staying at home and not getting within 1.5m of anyone we're not directly related to. What's a handshake after all that?

But at least in the realm of politics, shaking hands is seen as fundamental to how elected officials signal their connection to the average Joe.

"What the handshake is saying is, `I'm really with you and here for you. You can trust me,"' handshake expert Robert E. Brown told the Chicago Tribune in 2005.

Handshakes could become a thing of the past. (Unsplash)

"I love the people of this country, and you can't be a politician and not shake hands," President Donald Trump said at a Fox town hall in early March.

"And I'll be shaking hands with people - and they want to say hello and hug you and kiss you - I don't care."

Vice President Mike Pence echoed Trump's newfound pro-handshake sentiment.

"As the President has said, in our line of work, you shake hands when someone wants to shake your hand, and I expect the President will continue to do that, I'll continue to do it," he said at a coronavirus task force briefing on March 10.

President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(Both men have since stopped shaking hands at the recommendation of doctors and infectious disease experts.)

The presidential handshake has a long tradition in American politics.

Images of presidents - and presidential candidates - wading into crowds to shake as many hands as possible in the shortest amount of time are de rigeur throughout history.

There's a whole opening scene in the movie "Primary Colors" that analyses how a politician shakes hands.

Teddy Roosevelt holds the record for most handshakes by a head of state on a single day; on January 1, 1907, Roosevelt shook the hands of 8,513 people.

Australia's states and territories have different restrictions to combat the spread of coronavirus. (Nine)

Afterward, according to Roosevelt biographer Edmund Morris, the President "went upstairs and privately, disgustedly, scrubbed himself clean."

(The Roosevelts held an open house for the public at the White House that day.)

So, to imagine a political campaign, which we will have this fall, without handshakes is, well, weird. And it got me thinking about other established traditions of the campaign trail that the coronavirus may stop - or radically alter – forever.

- Article reproduced with permission from CNN

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