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While the health situation worsens in Europe, the French are getting back to the kiss or waving hands. Wearing a mask is also less and less respected in the streets.
Some use the elbows, others the knees, or wave from afar with their hands. To prevent the spread of Covid-19, millions of French people used gestures of salvation avoiding contact between skin, for nearly 19 months. But now, there is less vigilance among the French who are gradually resuming their habits: kissing and shaking hands are more and more frequent.
According to a survey by the Ifop institute, nearly 65% of French people kiss each other, as if it was necessary to compensate for all the kisses missed during confinement and the Covid-19 crisis. “We find a bit of the social habits of before,” said a passer-by. Barrier gestures less and less respected because of advanced vaccination. However, the vaccine does not fully protect against contamination. “We must put the mask back indoors”, recalls Professor Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute for Global Health in Geneva (Switzerland).