Vacci-Dating : Should People Be Made To Disclose Their Covid-19 Vaccination Status?

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To say that that the last 18 months have been weird would be a bit of an understatement.

The world has been turned upside down. We’ve been forced to reevaluate our interactions in light of a dirty, dirty disease that is out to get us. And dating, well is that even still happening.

While I might not quite be speaking from experience right now, my social media channels tell me that dating during a pandemic remains a thing and the young folk of the corona-infested world are refusing to die as virgins. Good for them I say!

Anyway, I am digressing.

We’ve entered a new phase of the pandemic now. And while things remain uncertain (like, will we ever travel again ?!?! #firstworldproblems , I know!) we have VACCINES (even in deepest darkest Africa, kids!)and things are looking somewhat brighter.

But this begs the question. How is vaccine rollout going to change things in terms of dating and relationships ?

I recently saw a article which made a rather interesting speculation about whether people would given the option of disclosing their Covid-19 vaccination status, which I figured would provide some interesting fodder for a blog post about whether people should be made to disclose their vaccination status and also the broader question of whether we’d want to date someone who had an opposing view on the vaccine to ourselves. Let’s break it down.

Pro-Vaxxers Are Likely To Be Making A Song And Dance About It

First things first. I’m not sure we can really label people ‘pro-vaxxers’, as such but let’s go with it.

However, the reason why I say pro-vaxxers or people that have had/will have the vaccine don’t seem to feel the need to hide their status. In fact, I’m sure everyone’s Facebook feed is full of happy, smiley, masked-up faces having a phat brag about how they’ve just been jabbed (I’m not denying I’m guilty of this too!) or proudly displaying their vaccine card like they’ve won an Olympic gold medal.

Some of these will take it a step further and use the opportunity to do their civic duty and encourage others to go get jabbed up too. In any case, you are unlikely to struggle when it comes to this group of people as the chances are they will be more than willing to disclose their vaccine status. In fact, the chances are they’ll be shouting from the rooftops.

As Are The Out And Proud Anti-Vaxxers

On the other side of the spectrum, you’ve got people ripping off their masks, parading themselves along Sea Point promenade, and sharing their conspiracy theories all over Facebook. So go figure.

But Its The Secret Anti-Vaxxers That We Need To Be Concerned About

So this is where things get tricky. I always figured that things here were pretty black and white here. Even if you are a bit of a ‘survival of the fittest-type’ individualist, most people will quite happily put their trust in the hands of medical professionals and go along with the vaccine or NOT.

And just like with Brexit, when we didn’t think that many haters existed and then experienced that nasty surprise, the same is happening here. I’ve been quite baffled to find more and more people who are somewhat ambivalent about the vaccine. These aren’t the out-and-proud Anti-vax brigade, but people who’ll casually tell you, they’ve decided to ‘wait’ (wait for what exactly?! Sinovac, perhaps?).

Ugh. I can’t even. I get the people that are scared. I get the people who are suffering from pandemic fatigue and just want to get back to normal but the secret anti-vaxxers, I can’t get my weak mind around it.

And What Does This Mean For The Dating Game

Well, that depends on you really I suppose.

I’m all for vaccine passports and being ‘segregated’ from the unvaccinated folks – after all, the pandemic has probably made most of us reevaluate friendships and narrow our social circle in any case so getting rid of a few extra acquaintances here and there is really no great loss. But I’m probably more brutal than most (even if everyone disowned me, I’d still have my dog!). But sure, it’s a bit complicated. You’ve got the WOKIES comparing vaccine passports to passbooks from Apartheid times and the like, etc. (not convinced, but whatever). And we can’t please everyone.

As for dating, while the dating apps can request people declare their vaccine status, they can’t really force them or police it. Of course, people will lie about as they do about more important things like having a wife at home.

I guess, all there is left to say is that COVID has truly screwed up the dating world which wasn’t all that peachy beforehand. So, it depends how you feel about dating at the current time. As with anything, if you do want to immerse yourself in the cesspit of Tinder (because dying a virgin is the only other option), you’ll just need to establish how much of a deal breaker a person’s vaccine status is.

So Rinsers, it’s been a while, I know. Share your thoughts on vacci-dating. Do you care about a person’s stance on COVID and vaccines? Or are there more important priorities for you when it comes to a potential partner? Do you think asking someone to declare their vaccine status is unreasonable? Would you date an anti-vaxxer (secret or otherwise)? Let’s chat in the comments section below.