The issue isn't suggestions, it's how consumers behave when told that leafy greens killed some people.

On the other hand, educating customers that food poisoning isn't just for meat is how you get people to wash their lettuce and stop drinking raw milk.

I'm all for evidence-based recommendations. Does washing lettuce work for this kind of outbreak?

Would depend on the pathogen in question, how its on the lettuce (and indeed what kind of lettuce), etc. In this particular outbreak, it looks like the CDC's stance is "not really".

But there's a lot of ambient food poisoning that can be prevented by washing lettuce, especially in reducing cross-contamination (the lettuce wasn't contaminated, then got exposed during the cooking prep process, etc.)

I'd be surprised that washing lettuce prevents the second, but I'm open to evidence that it does.

Yes, people do seriously suggest that: http://highsteaks.com/carnivores-creed/owsley-the-bear-stanl... (just the first link I found)

I mean relating to this. Obviously there are people suggesting just about every viewpoint under the sun.

Oh, yes, I’d agree that contamination risk must be small compared to whatever the dietary effect might be. (I’d say even the direction of that effect is unknown.)