My SO has a very strong emetophobia and she is very, very clear to not touch any food without having washed her hands very good. Even at home. I learned a lot from her and have not been sick for ages. I also don't eat out in flu season. I just don't. I worked in gastronomy during my time at university. I know why I (at least in flu season) just don't eat out. as long as people need to earn money and don't get sick pay, people go to work when sick. At least I did during financially desparate times. So I don't blame the people doing it at all - I just don't buy food from them.
Like you sit there with an attitude, but in the kitchen you cant see your food was cooked on an unclean grill
If it makes you feel superior or better, go ahead.
It's pretty hard for bacteria to live on a 200C grill. "Unclean" and "harboring live bacteria" are different things.
You'd be surprised how much care is paid to hygiene in commercial kitchens. It's quite different than cooking at home, as the stakes are a lot higher.
One thing I always like about human parasites (and no, I don't mean your coworkers) is that you can give a rough date to the invention of clothing.
I wash my hands, and yet no doubt my phone and computer keyboard are filthy.
There are ways to keep those surfaces relatively clean; I use a screen protector of my iPad and a keyboard "skin" on the laptop, so they can tolerate a bit of regular washing. In the past I have simply used sunlight - 10 minutes of high desert UV will knock out most bugs. But I haven't kept up with that as much this year.
Ugh. Signing off, gong to wash hands...
There's obviously a balance with the best outcome. I doubt washing your hands before eating will make your immune system any worse.
And I really experience a lot of people just not caring for basic hygiene at all when outside.
Both ends of this spectrum can also result in physicals health issues too. Get a stomach bug and end up with post-infections IBS. On the other hand, stress from fear of germs could also cause IBS. Sadly you end up with the same result. Both approaches, when taken to the extreme, can cause equal amounts of health issues.
In fact I would go as far as saying that breathing is a more common route of entry for pathogens than eating. The stomach contains concentrated hydrochloric acid.
If anything should come out of this pandemic, it should be Americans following basic hygiene. And I mean - basic. Hand sanitizer should be at every table.