I mean it's not so much that it's a bad place to quarantine people, it's that they put both sick people and well people inside the quarantine. (i.e. taking for granted what seemed obvious to me all along, which is that the boundary of the quarantine is the outer hull of the ship)
Um. Japan's aim was to quarantine the ship away from their population?
So, isn't the implication here that quarantining people in apartment buildings is going to be equally ineffective?
More like quarantining people outside of a facility equipped to handle it is a bad idea. You really need a negative pressure room[0] to contain an airborne pathogen like this.
Most apartments I've lived in have their own HVAC system that's separated from any other apartment's system. Though things like central corridors are probably still a problem and need some kind of decontamination system.