Like the crowd of the 60th anti-vaxxers squeezed into the upscale dining scene of Jonathan’s Grille in Nashville on a recent Monday night, a moment of pride won over Scott Armstrong.
Years ago, he was fired from his job as a drug and alcohol counselor for refusing to get one coverage. Now, unvaccinated people from all over the country were flocking to the sports bar to meet others like them. There was a woman who flew in from New Jersey and another from Philadelphia. One group drove from Florida.
They were there to attend the combination organized by Not enteredan anti-vaccine dating app that, according to its website, is “built on building healthy relationships.” It was the second stop on the four Ujected cities”Summer of Love” tour intended for singles who oppose the Covid-19 vaccine.
“We’re still some of the most persecuted people in society right now,” Armstrong, who now owns a video production company and helped organize the event, tells WIRED. “People still show this complete hatred for us and our belief in natural health. It just continues to inspire us to hold these meetings.”
New directions for in-person events to cure app burnout are a major trend among dating apps struggling to find signs of new life. According to ticketing platform Eventbrite, IRL dating events have been on the rise since 2025. Tinder, as part of renamed this yearannounced that it is investing in membership meetings. But singles in the anti-vax community say for them the events are about connecting with people—potential future partners—who, above all, believe in physical freedom.
Other platforms include software Unjabbed, NoVax.Singles, Day. Dateand a Reddit-style dating site and community site also named Unjabbed.netwhose members are spread across the United States and Europe. PureBlood.Datingwhich operates as a social club, launched earlier this year with a street marketing campaign, posting flyers around San Francisco to attract members who encouraged people to sign up for notifications on its website if they wanted to join “a community of unvaccinated singles to connect in real, personal events.”
“This is a pro-liberty movement. It’s not just an anti-vaccine movement,” says Shelby Hosana, the 32-year-old founder of Ujected. “Whatever goes into your body and whatever you do with your body is 100 percent your choice.”
Unvaccinated was created specifically for people against the Covid vaccine but, according to its website, it is against all vaccines. Members work on the honor system, although the program offers a pay level—“Certified Unvaccinated”—where they certify their unvaccinated status with an affidavit. In 2021, the same year it was launched, Unreleased was removed from the Apple App Store for violating Covid-19 fraud policies. The app was re-accepted in the App Store, as well as uploaded to Google Play, in the summer of 2024, which Hosana attributes to “time on earth.” Donald Trump, who in the past raised the story that childhood vaccines were linked to autism, won re-election that November.
Covid and other vaccines have been proven safe through rigorous testing and years of research, and before that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.vaccine skeptic, taking the US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pointed out the reality. Recommendations, according to the agency, are updated as they are confirmed by new scientific research and are also updated followed by The Food and Drug Administration, which works with government and non-government partners to ensure vaccine safety.
With the Trump administration weaken vaccination policies With more Americans opting out, the United States is seeing an increase in the incidence of diseases that were largely eliminated. According to many recent reports, dangerous diseases that many vaccines are known to protect against are on the rise again in the United States, including measles, whooping cough, tuberculosisand various bacterial infections.
