The levels of denial and the examples cited to debunk the article are clearly proof.

Pretty much no-one in here has the level of contact comfort exemplified in the photos, let alone the contact that is common between straight men in other cultures. It's telling that a lot of the counters to this cite scenarios where the other party is a stranger, when that's clearly not the kind of contact being talked about in the article.

There's a clear connection between quality of physical contact and quality of health. People would rather not be healthy because... just uncomfortable?

Don't buy that. It's interesting that people can't really put their finger on why they're uncomfortable with contact, and why they'd rather continue to be isolated (however relative that term might be to their circumstance) than adapt to something (more) contact friendly and in the long term healthier.