Eating your food off your tray in Food Court/Coffee Shop...

[kaseyma]

I agree with that too, but I am rather not analyzing this kind of situations in terms of some pathogens, more in terms of practicality and personal consequence. Following the wipe the table logic one should also handle properly (gloves, disinfecting liquids) all the contact surfaces in the public space, door knobs, handles, nets terminals, money etc. Bringing your own plates and utensils would seem a must as the ones in the coffee shops are very likely washed in reused water and handled by the same hands as the table cleaning rags. And I am only slightly sarcastic.

There are people that do this, and not just TV characters (e.g. Monk).
Howie Mandel happens to one fairly well known celebrity that's a mysophobe.

There was a time when I would, too, but have since switched to Beeroclock's philosophy of exercising the immune system.
That which does not kill us . . . .

[x9200]

You go, x9200….I'm sure no respect intended toward those of us who choose to eat on clean tables (despite the fact that we use doorknobs and elevator buttons without constantly whipping out the hand sanitizer)!

No disrespect was intended. No need to make it personal. As I said, I simply think it is not consequent. You don't need to whip it constantly. Wearing thin cotton gloves would do the job and still be comfortable (no sweating etc.).

Digression: You know, afterall we don't know what each of us understand by "clean table". It could be very well that you have to eat in places with the tables so dirty I chose to avoid instinctively. All the coffee shops I visit have no problems with the aunties cleaning the table. It was the case when I was living in CCK and it is the case where I live now (Bukit Batok, ie a big foodcourt right in the middle of Bkt Btk East Ave 4). More-over, it happened pretty frequently that the tables were dressed with thin plastic wrap (disposable!) so they did not get dirty after some local familly, as per the local custom, unloaded all the bones and other unwanted parts directly onto it. These happened especially in the older places where they up-sized the tables with some wooden laminated boards to accommodate more people.