Just came across this cool website.
https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu

It allows you to choose the size of the party that you'd like to attend

and its shows using a nice coloured map showing the chance of you meeting someone to have fun with

whoops no sorry wrong dating website

it shows the chance of meeting someone who is infected with COVID-19.

According to the website your chances are really good in Switzerland (apparently much better than the UK) especially out west in the Romande area.

Anyone still fancy hooking up at a Christmas market?

Oh no! Where will I buy overpriced tat now?

https://www.englishforum.ch/social-e...et-2020-a.html

I feel sorry for school teachers. Working along 15-20 kids in the same room every day. Hope these numbers don't discourage them.

I feel sorry for the kids too. Kids are equally exposed, and so are their parents, siblings, everyone they have contacts with. Kids are not some autonomous entities with no social contact outside of school. We all share the risks. Sure, teachers are more exposed than other professional categories, but what about people who work in the food industry?
Does anyone feel sorry for them too, or is it only the more vocal ones we usually worry about.

Indeed, kids and teachers share the same risk exposure. My point was that the numbers are released to discourage parties but in reality they make you think about commuting by train and going to school. Around 80% of prob of encountering someone sick in a 20 people group in Genève and Fribourg.

Thank you so much Summergirl -- the problem with Xmas market is only the 'tip of the iceberg'. I had a small stall once per month in one of the street markets (as I'm a hobby beekeeper), and about 1/2 of us were 'kicked out' because of 'lack of space on a LIFO approach So, the Xmas 'ban' of the market, is just the cherry of the cake - the problem started already in April ....

If they are going to let people in Gondolas going skiing it seems illogical to ban Christmas markets.

If you haven’t got Netflix or similar, highly recommended to get it. Watching that in copious amounts, safe at home is about the safest way to spend Christmas for everybody this year, as (a reminder) Switzerland is one of the worse affected countries in the world...

No you are wrong Mossie. They should ban gondola rides, and I am an avid skier. There are often other ways to get to a mountain top. Chair lifts, shared with a family member or, heaven forbid, a drag lift.

Q: What does POMA stand for?
A: Pulls Off More Assets.

I don't agree. People are not stupid, and the '15minute' risk of being breathed on is well known.
If people want to take that risk, then so be it.
Personally I wouldn't get in a gondola either. I was in a few over the summer, but then they were less than 20% capacity, but I wouldn't fancy that big one in Zermatt in peak ski season.

Oh wait... are you actually being serious?

If there is one thing the pandemic has shown (actually, that most crisis of every kind before it has shown) it is that you cannot rely on the average person to display good levels of common sense. The lowest common denominators will always ruin it for everyone else and this will likely never change.

I completely disagree.

I don’t get the discussion about the market. I can have tons of alcohol without fun.

We just had Christmas Stollen for a perfect Sunday breakfast. Christmas, bring it on! No market needed. I also keep my Christmas hat on my avatar.

Uff. My running will be tough today.

These Christmas markets can be extremely crowded...banning them seems pretty logical to me

The fact that it's not obvious to some people that a very crowded event in a small area is cancelled during a peaking second wave of a pandemic just show that the average person can't be trusted to make sensible decisions.

For instance Engelberg will restrict theirs from 8 persons to 4 with masks.

Big cable cars will restrict to 50% capacity and in most cases you must take a gondola or cable car to the chair lifts.

Anyone who has flown out of Zurich recently will know social distancing does not happen.

It’s a purely financial decision nothing else as the ski industry brings a hell of more money in than a Christmas market.

Im just pointing out that there is no uniformity in their decisions and Are based on pure financial reasoning.

I heard that the Bern one was still on

Christmas markets cancelled ..... and there we thought the dreaded song "last Christmas" would gain a whole new meaning.

I’m not certain that one is used anymore.