Just to provide counter-data: we started the kid off at 2y3m in kindergarten with about 13 kids total. He’s been sick maybe 1 or 2 times in the past 6 months; similar to the rate he’d usually get sick, but we do take him to playgrounds and other places with other kids a lot anyway so maybe the difference is not that big. I’d assume that the kindergarten having air filters and very few kids (13 is not the size of his group, it’s the whole institution, and all the kids are together), makes this a much more reasonable trade-off between socializing and illness.
Just to provide counter-data: we started the kid off at 2y3m in kindergarten with about 13 kids total. He’s been sick maybe 1 or 2 times in the past 6 months; similar to the rate he’d usually get sick, but we do take him to playgrounds and other places with other kids a lot anyway so maybe the difference is not that big. I’d assume that the kindergarten having air filters and very few kids (13 is not the size of his group, it’s the whole institution, and all the kids are together), makes this a much more reasonable trade-off between socializing and illness.