The claim seems to be that it's because we're "able to sequence the genome of a new pathogen within days [...] or design a new vaccine within two weeks and have

The claim seems to be that it's because we're "able to sequence the genome of a new pathogen within days [...] or design a new vaccine within two weeks and have it in human clinical trials a month later". The latter certainly wasn't needed for SARS1, but the former...? At the time I was a high school student in Toronto, which was hit relatively hard by SARS1, and I remember there was lots of fear and anxiety around it, but it didn't affect my daily life in any way. Did we do lots of PCR testing and quarantining to keep it from spreading? Not sure. That wouldn't have been possible a few decades ago, anyway.