Having lived in dense Asian cities with collectivist culture it seems like a "no shit" position. Then you spend some time in a US suburb or even more rural areas where people "feel" more insulated from broader society and you can see how these thoughts in conjunction with individual exceptionalism take root. Feel being a key qualifier because these people who be just as fucked if the disease cannot be contained in urban areas just like urban areas would be fucked if their rural support system collapses, and for many countries if globalism collapses.

My current position is I can't see covid19 or any similarly infectious disease being contained without mass contact tracing / global medical monitoring technology, it's an emergent reality when globalized society confronts pandemics. The only things preventing this system prior was an absence of technology, so in some sense we are almost fortunate the outbreak is happening with our current capabilities. If covid19 happened instead of SARS 20 years ago, there wouldn't even be the technology to rapidly map the genome, roll out tests, or contact trace the way east Asian countries are doing to mitigate spread. This is the first time in human history where we have the opportunity deal with ongoing serious pandemic and perhaps implement resilient technical systems to prevent for future events without catastrophic social disruption. Covid19 is not going to be the last pandemic we see, billions of people in Asia and Africa are being uplifted through industrialization which means more opportunities for zoonotic diseases in the future.