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Comment by nkrisc | Hacker News Reader

Unless you’re someone with a child under 5 who hasn’t been able to get vaccinated yet. My wife and I are fully vaccinated + booster but we are still choosing to be extra careful because our 4 year old can’t get vaccinated yet.

So it’s a little frustrating to hear people talk like this when not everyone can get vaccinated yet.

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That's because the chances of serious illness with Covid in under 5s is extremely small. Here in the UK nobody under 12 has been vaccinated except those who are extremely vulnerable. The data for England[0] puts the death rate within 28 days of a positive test in the 0-4 age group at 0.8 per 100,000. I believe there are around 3 million children in that age group in the UK so that works out as 24 deaths in that age group in the UK throughout the entire pandemic. Obviously that's a tragic number and awful for the affected families, but at the same time you have to put the risk to your children in perspective for your own sanity.

My kids are 2 and 5 - they've both had Covid at least once, possibly twice and it was indistinguishable from all the other colds they've had since the pandemic hit.

[0] https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths?areaType=nati...

I’m worried about him spreading it to immuno-compromised relatives.

Understandable. Although vaccinations have proven only partially effective at preventing you getting covid so even if he was vaccinated you wouldn’t be in a much better position in that regard.

You might be right, but we’re erring on the side of caution. There are many things we can’t control so we’re focusing on the things we can.

I don't know what the parent of your comment is talking about. Vaccination shots 6+ months ago are not that effective any more, but if you got a booster shot recently, it's very effective. It reduces your chances of getting COVID by a factor of 5 to 10.

Child death rate is basically 0

Death isn’t the only negative outcome.

Omicron has a higher propensity to infect the upper respiratory tract, which is less developed in young children.

You need to forget what you’ve heard about older variants and children. Look at the stats. More kids are being hospitalized in this wave and more deaths are occurring per capita in 0-14 year olds.

It’s not good.

> more deaths are occurring per capita in 0-14 year olds.

Citation please? Current CDC data don’t show enough deaths in that age range to be statistically significant, let alone provide that conclusion.

Having personally known a 2 year old who was severely ill from COVID-19, I'll do what I can to prevent that happening to my child.

Statistics mean nothing once something bad has happened to you. It's not like having been struck by lightning is less bad because the odds of happening to you were low. I will do what I can to stack the odds in our favor.

What you're doing is hearing that your friend got struck by lightning, and then deciding to never walk outside while it's raining. If you knew someone who got severe myocarditis from the vaccine, would you then become anti vax? Or does your fear only go in media approved directions?

Same goes for a child walking or using public transport to school, but almost everyone drives them. Endangering a child in a preventable way is now a socially punishable behavior

Parents may be choosing to value the benefits of the child playing with other children more than the tail risk of a viral infection.

I am not saying one is right or wrong, but I think it is valid to look at all the other viral infections kids are exposed to and cannot be vaccinated against, and realize they just have to roll the dice. In the past 4 years, my kids have had RSV, a noro or rotavirus, probably Covid at least once, and a numerous other viruses.

RSV/noro were the worst, but if they are going to play with other kids, it is all but guaranteed they will have something. I am actually most afraid of noro/rota viruses, far more than Covid. That thing tore through the entire daycare and shutdown multiple classes within 2 days, and the cleanup from all the vomit was crazy.

Where do almost all parents drive kids to school? In the US?

Yes, in a lot of the US. I know so few people who do not drive kids to school that the outliers are remarkable.

I see, sorry to hear that. It's better in Europe though here too the number of parent chauffeurs has definitely increased. I thought the school bus is still the US way but that's probably then just movies keeping up that appearance.

School busses are the norm for rural and suburban schools. City public transport or walking is more common in larger metro areas, but in states that get very cold, even metro areas still have school busses so that young kids don't have to risk walking to a bus stop.

TBH, I have never heard of a US school district where the majority are driven to school by their parents, though to be fair to the parent poster I can't sat that I would be terribly surprised if such a place existed.

You probably just hang out with people in the top income quintile or decile.

If I were to guess, the vast majority of kids still get to school via school bus.

Cool. Can you say the same for my elderly relatives that would like to spend time around our child? I’m not as worried about the child as I’m worried about him spreading it to someone who won’t be spared.

Vaccines wont give you imminity for spreading virus. Inform yourself, please.

Of course not, and I never stated as such. That's why even though I'm vaccinated I still wear mask in crowded public places. From the informing of myself I've done, the studies I've seen on the topic so far do suggest reduced transmission by vaccinated individuals. If you know studies that show otherwise, please share them I'd love to read them.

We're trying to balance multiple factors: living our life normally, protecting ourselves, protecting family members we still interact with. We take some known risks: sending child to preschool, while taking known precautions: wearing masks, getting vaccinated. If being vaccinated reduces the chance that we might spread the virus to someone, then that's a marginal advantage we'll stack in our favor.

You can find "study" on everything. So it is a matter of trust. I prefer to do study offline and talk with people personaly about their experiences. Oh wait... Is it dangerous?

Living normally is probably only one thing that we can do. Vaccines, masks, lockdowns... None works. But if we are daily exposed to news with fear agenda, we will never live normally again. We shoul live, not survive and loose our time.

Btw... Reduced chance of spreading virus wont make people immune to catch it. But yet... Gonverments consider vaccinated people as immune. Why?

Even if you vaccinate your kid he will still get it and spread it. I don't understand why this fact is just ignored by people. The vaccine is not sterilizing, it does not stop transmission, only lessens disease severity. The chain of transmissions will only be broken by natural immunity unfortunately.

The studies I've read suggest reduced transmission ability by vaccinated individuals. If you know of ones that state otherwise please share them, I'd love to read them as well for a broader understanding.

If in fact vaccination reduces transmission of the virus, then that's an advantage I'll stack in our favor, among other precautions like wearing masks.

Sure https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2116597 shows barely any reduction in transmissibility for alpha and delta. But but just looking at the numbers in high vaccinated countries already can tell you it. If transmissibility was significantly reduced you would expect this wave to be smaller than the last but it’s bigger.

More studies available on https://old.reddit.com/r/COVID19/search?q=Transmission&restr... if you want to deep dive

Is the action of your elderly relatives spending a lot of time around your child worth compromising your child's normal youth and mental health?

Please elaborate: in what way is our child's normal youth and mental health being compromised? Are you spying on us? How do you know what we're doing?

Are they vaccinated and/or have been already sick?

If yes, then the chance of them dying is relatively low.

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