Good analogy.
Ironically, I have a few “contamination phobias” born of past experiences but I was walking around looking positively normal compared to the “OMG sterilize everything!!!” freaks.
Can’t count the times my hands started burning like hell because of all the “antibacterial goop” they were smearing on shopping cart handles.
No idea what it was but I was allergic to it.
And then were the “sprayers” who were literally dousing everything with aerosol sanitizers after every single person touched anything.
I’d rather face a “killer virus” than God knows what that stuff was.
I’d hike my t shirt up over my nose just to try and spare myself from it.
Whole world lost its mind.
My grocery store had gotten new refrigeration units about a year before Coroba virus panic hit. Door handles everywhere. The sprayers were constantly sanitizing them. For about two weeks. Then, I think people started to catch on that this just wasn’t a terribly virulent bug, novel or not. I was thinking “Oh, great. Now they’re creating superbugs at the grocery store.”