It's not every day when you read a headline such as this, but The White House has announced that it has partnered with dating apps Bumble, Tinder, OkCupid, and others to encourage users and young adults to get vaccinated.
"The pandemic has also had a negative impact on young people's social lives. Social distancing and dating were always a bit of a challenging combination," says White House senior COVID official Andy Slavitt.
President Joe Biden's goal of 70% of American's being vaccinated by the Fourth of July has received harsh criticism. The criticism coupled with a looming deadline might be why Slavitt announced today that dating apps Tinder, Bumble, Match, Plenty of Fish, Badoo, OkCupid, Chispa, Hinge, and BLK would be rolling out features to encourage vaccinations.
According to Slavitt, OkCupid users who display their status "are 15% more likely to get a match," but one has to wonder if this will make dating apps more discriminatory than they already are.
Chipsa and BLK said new features would be implemented on June 1. OkCupid has stated its features will be implemented on Monday, while other apps will begin a rollout in the coming weeks. "In all seriousness, people are interested in other things in life besides their vaccine. But the vaccine enables people to get back to the things they enjoy in life."
We'll see.
