Not obsessed. When a major power closes down a province with the population of Britain, and then expands the closure to roughly half of the nation’s workforce, to the point that the global supply chain is interrupted, and parts shortages begin to materialize, you stand up and pay attention. This is not the typical reaction to a bug. Maybe they know something we don’t.
At this point, it appears that the reaction is overdone. However, the jury is still out. We await further developments. China’s neighbors are taking serious measures, fearing the worst. If it turns to be a big fat nothing, they lose a few points of economic growth this year. But on the off-chance that this eventually turns out to be long-feared Spanish flu-like pandemic, with the prospect of millions dead per country, without adequate precautions, better safe than sorry.
In terms of the disease, I’d say the countries to watch at this point (besides our own) are Italy and S. Korea.