Anti-vaccination dating apps are on the way out. People are angry as hell about it

Like a crowd of people On a recent Monday night, 60 anti-vaxxers packed the upstairs dining area of ​​Jonathan’s Grill in Nashville, a proud moment for Scott Armstrong.

Years ago, he was fired from his job as a drug and alcohol counselor for refusing to get vaccinated. Now, unvaccinated people from all over the country are gathering at the sports bar to meet others like them. There was a woman who flew in from New Jersey and another from Philadelphia. One group set out from Florida.

They were there for a meeting hosted by Unjected, an anti-vax dating app that, according to its website, is “built on creating health-conscious relationships.” This was the second stop on Unjected’s four-city “Summer of Love” tour dedicated to individuals who oppose the Covid-19 vaccine.

“We are still some of the most oppressed people in society right now,” Armstrong, who now owns a video production company and helped organize the event, tells WIRED. “People still express this absolute hatred for us and our natural health beliefs. They continue to encourage us to host these meetups.”

Redirecting around in-person events to cure app fatigue is a major trend among dating apps struggling for signs of new life. According to ticketing platform Eventbrite, IRL dating events have been on the rise since 2025. And Tinder, as part of its rebranding this year, announced it is investing in member meetups. But people in the anti-vax community say that for them, the events are about connecting with people — potentially future partners — who believe, above all, in bodily autonomy.

Other platforms include Unjabbed, NoVax.Singles, Unjuiced.Date, and the Reddit-style dating and community site also called Unjabbed.net, whose members are spread across the US and Europe. PureBlood.Dating, which operates like a social club, launched earlier this year with a street marketing campaign, posting fliers around San Francisco to attract members that urged people to sign up for notifications on its website if they wanted to join “a community for unprotected singles to connect in real, in-person events.”

“It’s actually a pro-freedom movement,” says Shelby Hosana, the 32-year-old founder of Unjected. “It’s not just an anti-vaccination movement.” “Everything that goes into your body and everything you do with your body is 100 percent your choice.”

Unjected is designed specifically for people against the Covid vaccine, but, according to its site, it is against all vaccinations. Members operate on an honor system, although the application offers a distinct tier – “Unjected Verfied” – where they attest to their non-vaccination through an affidavit. In 2021, the same year it was released, Unjected was removed from Apple’s App Store for violating coronavirus misinformation policies. The app was accepted back into the App Store, in addition to being uploaded to Google Play, in the fall of 2024, which Hosana attributes to “the timing in the world.” Donald Trump, who in the past has promoted the myth that childhood vaccines are linked to autism, won re-election in November of that year.

Covid and other vaccines have been shown to be safe through rigorous trials and years of research, and before Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known vaccine skeptic, took over the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reflected these facts. The recommendations are updated, according to the agency, when new scientific research warrants them, and are also monitored by the Food and Drug Administration, which cooperates with governmental and non-governmental partners to ensure the safety of vaccines.

As the Trump administration weakens vaccine policies and more Americans opt out, the United States is seeing a rise in cases of diseases that have been largely eliminated. According to multiple recent reports, deadly diseases that many vaccines are known to protect against have begun to rise again in the United States, including measles, whooping cough, tuberculosis, and several bacterial infections.