It is above 50%, so hardly one of the worst.

And masks are worthless in most situations.

I find that the Swiss handling to be as good as could be hoped for.

Tom

There should be just one big ''Karen/Corona' thread for these sort of topics.

It's worth remembering that Switzerland is vaccinating the 750,000 who caught Covid only once. Are they counted as fully vaccinated?

I think this remark is unnecessarily nasty. Please, don't.

Whether or not you or I or anyone else agrees/disagrees with OP's concerns about the potential dangers of a covid infection - be they death or long-term symptoms - OP is still a parent of a small child and, like other parents aiming to do the right thing, is trying to work out the best possible options for the child.

There's no harm in a little kindness along the way, for parents who are thinking things through.

I would hope so.

Tom

Interesting article

How Should I Think about School & Child Care Now?

As (almost) always, I think you are quite right. However, if people, myself included, read stuff like that below... it kind of rubs them the wrong way.

Well she can do with her kid however she pleases, my son had a great first day of kindergarten and I am glad that he could experience that.
IMHO, Covid is far less threatening to a child that age than the way to kindergarten.

Well it is simply a fact that for kids influenza is more dangerous than Covid, and for pre-schoolers *significantly* so (3.4 times to be precise https://freopp.org/comparing-the-ris...e-d33a1c76c198).

Not only is her child at a negligible risk from Covid, he/she is at the most critical age for language accumulation and social development. Especially important if the parents aren't native speakers in the local language. Im not sure that's fully replaceable by casual and unstructured outdoor play. Im certainly hoping my little one goes into school without any requirement for language support (or at least minimal support). That isn't going to happen without daily exposure.

Would she keep her child out of nursery in flu season (hardly a hypothetical question - it will reappear with a vengeance sooner or later)? If not, why not?

Im not trying to personal or mean. That's just my 2p. You can't keep your kids wrapped up in cotton wool. And if you could, this isn't the occasion for it anyway.

It's funny how attitudes change. In late January and February 2020 my wife and I found it bizzare that people were behaving normally when it was abundantly clear we were going into a pandemic, and certainly reduced our social interactions to the minimum. When I started work in March 2020 here everyone wanted to shake my hand still. Now (Post vaccine) I have gone full circle to being about the most cavalier in the office now I know the risks are almost non existent for a fully vaccinated young person. I'd quite happily never wear a mask or social distance again.

sorry to rub you the wrong way, it was actually an article about parents wanting more safety measures in schools (masking, better ventilation). so, trying to keep their kids as safe as possible. Great to hear your son enjoyed his first day of kindergarten!

Honestly the language thing doesn't bother me. I've seen plenty of older kids arrive in Switzerland and become fluent in German quickly. She is really (too) chatty in English and I know she'll catch up. Social development does bother me, but at the moment I don't see any difference between her and her peers.

I'm genuinely interested, are you not worried about passing the virus on to others at all? Even your little one? I can't understand the need to be cavalier in a pandemic. I know you've protected yourself but what about the immuno compromised or kids?

The one obvious difference is that a preschool aged child can be vaccinated against influenza (as mine was).

Your point about language acquisition and critical periods is a very important one! I was very glad our child (in a non-German speaking household) needed no additional German in KG and school due to having started daycare immediately after our move here.

Sure but the quite large difference in danger between the two (as per my reference above) and the low efficacy of the flu vaccine means it's probably at least comparable. My daughter has an egg allergy so the flu vaccine is not possible yet (I'm hoping she grows out of it.)

I think even vaccinated I'm at significantly higher risk than her. Certainly her grandparents are, and naturally they want to see her as much as possible. To be honest I'm not worried about her at all. You can't spend your life worrying about ultra low probability events.

As for the vulnerable - if delta hadn't come along this thing would have been possible to eradicate locally. It clearly isn't anymore, so it's a choice between distancing for life or going back to normal. We have to trust they get boosters at the appropriate point and avoid risky situations.

This.
I really liked Bersets statement regarding that. People will get in contact with the virus, either via vaccine or contact with the active virus itself.
Protect what needs and wants to be protected and than continue as normal as possible.

There will be almost certainly no effect on the little one if he gets in contact with the virus. And I think the vector would most likely be in the other direction as I follow distancing rules and a 3 year old obviously doesn't.

However, the immuno compromised are indeed at risk. My MIL went trough severe chemotherapy 3 years ago and even before COVID we had to strictly isolate her from the little ones. Sad times for all the involved.

To be honest its probably going to be all of us getting in contact with the actual virus. But the vaccinated are putting themselves in the best position to be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.

Covid is here to stay. It's not going to go away anytime soon. So trying to avoid Covid will be a bit like trying to avoid the flu.

Some of the people I know who have caught Covid have no idea how they got it because they were extra careful, and the best explanation is simply that it is very contagious and you really have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Unless your child is immuno-compromised or otherwise at risk, there is no good reason to continue isolating. Look at Australia - they isolated themselves from the world for a good 18 months and now everything is unravelling.

Agreed, but this delta variant is hitting the little ones hard.

How close are we considering the vax for children under 12?

Is it? Thats news to me but i didn't check any new data in the lasts weeks. Can you refer me to a source?

I personally would not give the vaccine to my kids, not for a few years anyway and not until we have more data.

And from what we have seen to date, the children who have had Covid complications are usually those who are otherwise in a high risk category. Most of the kids we know who have had Covid actually display no symptoms at all.

So if a child is in a high risk group, yes, maybe there are other considerations for them like isolation, Covid vaccine, etc.

But for normal and healthy children who don't really "suffer" from Covid, I don't think we need to be too extreme.