From handshakes to kissing babies, virus upends poll campaigning in US

Podiums get sanitised before the candidate steps up to speak. Fist or elbow bumps take the place of handshakes, and kissing babies is out of the question.

Rallies are cancelled, leaving candidates speaking to a handful of journalists and staffers instead of cheering crowds of thousands.

This is campaigning in the age of the coronavirus, when fears of the new pandemic's rapid spread are upending Joe Biden's and Bernie Sanders' campaigns.

The urgency of the issue comes at a pivotal time in the Democratic presidential primary, as Biden is beginning to pull ahead as a front-runner for the nomination and as Sanders is scrambling to catch up.

"If coronavirus has the lasting impact that we all fear it will, it will also dramatically reshape the way a presidential campaign unfolds," said Jesse Ferguson, a veteran Democratic strategist and former spokesman for Hillary Clinton's campaign.

"Politics is fundamentally about leaders interacting with the people who they represent, and if a pandemic forecloses that ability, it changes everything how you campaign, how you knock doors, how you do events and how you do the retail part of politics."