On February 12, 2006 the phrase “social distancing” was first coined in a New York times article:

If the avian flu goes pandemic while Tamiflu and vaccines are still in short supply, experts say, the only protection most Americans will have is “social distancing,” which is the new politically correct way of saying “quarantine.”

But distancing also encompasses less drastic measures, like wearing face masks, staying out of elevators — and the [elbow] bump.

The “highly contagious” (spreads easily) H5N1 avian flu of 2005-06, went away “without the imposition of totalitarian controls that the U.S. president sought at the time.”   The Bush government produced a national strategy pandemic report in November 2005, the proposed “plans were never deployed. At the time, not many people took the thing that seriously. There were tests and a vaccine available, though not widely used. In 2005, 98 people died globally, and another 115 the following year.” [1]