I’m no Carrie Bradshaw, but I’ve done my share of dating (probably more than my share), and I live in the sexy city of Los Angeles. What “Sex in the City” never had to deal with, though (and its sequel, “And Just Like That,” chose to gloss over), is a pandemic, which has added a number of new complications to the dating landscape. My last article on Love in the Time of COVID-19 prompted some fascinating questions from readers. In this post, I’ll talk about the first one:

Do we care if our prospective partners are vaccinated?

In preparation for this article, I decided to take a small survey. I shared it on my Facebook feed and in a few online groups to which I belong, so it was certainly not a fair and unbiased sampling of people. But it is an interesting peek into dating perspectives today, with 63 vaccinated and 7 unvaccinated respondents.

Would you date across vaccination lines?

Among vaccinated respondents, a few themes emerged on whether to date across vaccination lines or not. Those themes can be encapsulated by the following quotes:

DEFINITELY NOT “Getting vaccinated is a sign of caring not only about yourself, but also the world at large. That is the kind of person I want to date.”

PROBABLY NOT/YES “I’m vaccinated and I probably would date across vaccination lines if there’s a good reason. However, I tend to avoid it, since being unvaccinated appears to correlate with other views I disagree with.”

DEFINITELY YES “The risk of serious illness is too low to prevent me as a vaccinated person from dating an unvaccinated person.”

The unvaccinated pool completing the survey was small, but they universally reported they definitely would date vaccinated people and shared these thoughts:

“There are all kinds of reasons people got vaccinated, so I don’t want to judge.”

“If she’s open to my perspective, then I look forward to talking with her about it.”

The next logical question is, how do we find out whether our prospective dates are vaccinated or not? For the answer, check out Part 2.

And whatever your vaccination status and dating criteria, use our WhenToTest COVID Risk Quiz to determine whether you should take a test before venturing out on your next date because a date you infect with COVID is likely to think less fondly of you.

In future articles, we’ll address how to communicate with prospective partners about your risk tolerance and theirs, and I’ll share a host of date ideas for those not ready to get back to our go-to, close-contact, pre-pandemic options. If you have a great idea I should include, email me at knoble@whentotest.org!