White House Says Dating Apps Can Help Vaccinated (and Frisky) Find Love

With new “I’m Vaccinated” badges, dating apps are plugging into a cultural conversation over how Americans can approach postpandemic dating.

WASHINGTON — It took a nonzero amount of awkwardness, but the Biden administration highlighted a new plan on Friday to encourage more people to get vaccinated: an effort by popular dating apps to encourage pent-up young singles to promote their vaccination status to would-be right-swipers. “We have finally found the one thing that makes us all more attractive: a vaccination,” Andy Slavitt, one of President Biden’s top coronavirus advisers, said gamely during a virtual briefing for reporters, though he made clear he had been put up to it. Minutes later, he was asked a follow-up question about the dating sites. “I suppose I have to take that question, huh?” he said. “All you, Andy,” said Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general.