Cleanliness is next to Godliness? (with a capital g haha.)

So I was reading the Chicago Tribune today, and there was a especially fascinating article about cleanliness. Check it out yourself in whole or read the excerpt I've stolen below.

"When the CTA announced that new train cars would feature straps to hang onto, talk-show lines lit up with people wondering how these straps would be sanitized. Relax, people-the same crew that washes elevator buttons will see to it.

All of this is, of course, nutso. Microphobia. It goes by that name, along with a bunch of others-bacteriophobia, scatophobia-but it's nuts in any terms. Parenting Magazine quotes immunologists on the subject, maintaining that we face an "immune system immaturity." We're like lab animals raised in a sterile environment, they say, which leads to seriously abnormal lab animals. The Annals of Internal Medicine reports no difference between antibacterial soaps and any other kind of soap." by Terry Sullivan in the Chicago Tribune Magazine.

So what do you think of the matter? Are people really as nuts as this? Well, I for one can name at least 3 people who are obsessive compulsive on the matter of cleanliness. Sorry people... I'm not laughing at you, but you must face the facts of reality. Well.. get on with life and everything. Sorry for the insult I suppose. EEP.