Abstract: This paper analyses so-called points of intersection and short-circuits between homo hygienicus and homo hapticus. The global virus Covid 19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented hygienist obsession and a panic fear of physical proximity and contact. It has made clearly visible some longue-durée trends in European cultural history which I would summarize namely as a constant advancing of homo hygienicus at the expense of a steady declining of homo hapticus. Against this backdrop, I venture the hope of forming an ecological homo hapticus whose quintessence could be defined as follows: a touch that actively refrains from itself.