Eh, I don’t think it’s quite that serious lol. People become germaphobic for a ton of different reasons. I still have a really heavy impulse to wash my hands after touching surfaces due to covid, for instance.

Severe or unexpected illnesses experienced by a person or seen in their family can cause a lot of trauma. With the US healthcare and work system being as awful as it is, it’s not really irrational to be driven to being overly cautious. I think that as long as people aren’t having anxiety problems or compulsions that impact their quality of life, being a little too cautious like OP is pretty benign.