Sarah Kelly went on a date with this guy she met on Tinder before meeting a fate only conceivable during the pandemic.

This was the first in-person date the 33-year-old D.C. journalist had been on in a while. Kelly says it went okay — not firmly a good or bad date. About a week after they hung out, she texted him.

“I just said, ‘Hey, do you want to hang out again or not?’ … And that’s when I got the answer that ended up going viral,” Kelly says.

The message read, in part, “Ur real cool however I found someone who is also vaccinated!”

Kelly tweeted a screenshot of the message captioned “this is the most 2021 rejection ever.” To date, it’s gotten more than 21,000 retweets and more than 300,000 likes.

lmao this is the most 2021 rejection ever pic.twitter.com/jkEIkNkvOI

— Sarah Kelly (@thesarahkelly) January 31, 2021

The guy who texted that message doesn’t use Twitter and didn’t know the message went viral until we reached out to him.

“I met her at a bad time,” says M, who asked to be identified only by his first initial because he doesn’t want his identity going viral. “Had she met me a week earlier, I probably would have kept talking to her.”

Before he was vaccinated, M went on a couple of dates a month and often ran into people who weren’t being safe. Once he found someone he liked who was vaccinated, he figured he was being as safe as possible and deleted his dating apps. It’s hard to find someone who has it all, he says, and vaccination and being COVID-safe are top priorities for him right now.

“When it’s life and death, those are things that, at least for me, are must-haves,” he says.

The pandemic has radically changed dating. Most people looking to meet someone have circumvented COVID-era barriers through dating apps, meetups outside, and even virtual dating shows. But as the first coronavirus vaccines roll out across the region, there’s a new status symbol among locals in the dating scene: vaccination.

As Washingtonian reports, locals are bringing up the shot in their dating app bios and in conversation with matches, telling the world they’re vaccinated and ready to mingle. Nationally, mentions of “vaccine” in Tinder bios rose 258% between September and December 2020, according to the New York Times.

As of February 16, D.C. has administered more than 87,000 vaccine doses, and no ward in the city has vaccinated more than two percent of its population. In Maryland, more than 10% of the population has received its first dose, and more than 4% is on its second. Meanwhile, Virginia has vaccinated more than 12% of its population with at least one dose.

Jack C. is one of those lucky early vaccine recipients. The Virginia public school coach has been on at least four in-person dates since then and says if anything, having the vaccine has made him more careful. (We aren’t using his last name because he works with kids and doesn’t want them to know about his romantic life.)

“Because there’s so much effort put into it, I really want to make sure that whoever I’m meeting up with is someone who’s responsible and someone who’s going to be worth all the time and energy we’re putting into this,” says Jack, 26. “The vaccine has not really changed that because I’m still worried about being an asymptomatic carrier.”

Several of the daters we spoke to agreed that the vaccinated notice isn’t a signal that they can shed their masks or play it loose with social distancing. But if the vaccine does its job, it should help prevent the spread of disease. Carlos Rodríguez-Díaz, an associate professor at George Washington University studying health and racial disparities during the pandemic, points out that dating is safer now than before vaccines were available.

“What that means is the likelihood [people who are vaccinated] have to get infected and to present disease progression as we have seen in the past is significantly lower,” he says.

Preliminary vaccine research shows it is effective at limiting disease progression, Rodríguez-Díaz says. In other words, if someone who’s vaccinated gets infected they are less likely to see negative outcomes or harsh symptoms.

However, that doesn’t ensure that an unvaccinated person dating someone who is vaccinated is safe. Eventually, Rodríguez-Díaz says we’ll get to a point where enough people are vaccinated that it’s okay for a non-vaccinated person to interact with the public. But for now, any interpersonal interaction carries the risk of infection, albeit less severely for people who are vaccinated.

Kelly, with the viral tweet, thinks having “vaccinated” on a dating app bio isn’t just about safety — it’s a status symbol. Being vaccinated may demonstrate that you’re an essential worker or someone important enough to get the vaccine, and in a status-obsessed town like D.C., that can go a long way.

“I think it’s the new version of everyone having a picture with whatever high-profile politician,” Kelly says.

Jack says he doesn’t have “vaccinated” in his bio, but will jokingly flex that he’s gotten the vaccine if it comes up.

“I think I try to use it to boost my credentials as a responsible person and demonstrate that I am taking this really seriously, not just some guy who’s going to immediately take his mask off as soon as you meet him,” he says.

Most times he gets a positive response — it impresses people, he says.

Another D.C. dater, Patrick, has also seen people flex “vaccinated” in their bio but says it doesn’t win him over immediately. (We’re not using his name because he says he wants to keep his romantic life private.)

He’s more concerned with their habits than if they’re vaccinated. Patrick says he finds out how potential dates are spending their time and if they’re being safe on dating apps and social media before he commits to meeting them in person.

“[Being vaccinated] doesn’t draw my attention because if they’re still going to these hot spots and hanging in big crowds and doing wild activities I’m not gonna want to see them,” Patrick, 32, wrote DCist/WAMU in a message on Twitter.

Unlike Kelly, Jack, and Patrick, Antonio Campanelli peruses dating apps but isn’t comfortable meeting people until he gets the vaccine, even if they’re vaccinated. And yes, he’s seen some “vaccinated” shout outs in some bios.

“I’ll open a dating app because it’s something to do,” says Campanelli, 29. “I don’t know how [safe] it would be if I was just out and about going on different dates every week.”

Campanelli isn’t an essential worker and expects he’ll get the vaccine when the general public does. He doesn’t mind waiting because he expects more people will be vaccinated by then and it’ll be safer to date around.

When Campanelli does start seeing people, he says he wants to meet someone who is also vaccinated and for the right reasons. “I think ideally I’d want to date people who also believe in the science,” he says.

As the region nears a full year of pandemic life, Rodríguez-Díaz says people shouldn’t be afraid to date, particularly if it’s important to their mental health. Ultimately, the best COVID prevention strategy is communication.

“Before the vaccine, what people were doing on dating apps was saying they are testing negative or not sharing their pod or have been socially isolating — that was a way of communicating a reduced risk for infection,” he says. “Now, we have the vaccine, so that’s the new kid on the block when it comes to communicating prevention practices.”

He says it’s not unlike conversations around the HIV/AIDS epidemic that continues now. Some gay men communicate their HIV status on dating apps, or share that they’re using pre-exposure prophylaxis, a medication that helps prevent HIV infection, to let others know they’re being safe.

“Some people are taking care of their health by using medication to prevent HIV infection and sharing it on dating apps. This is very similar to sharing information about the COVID19 vaccine,” Rodríguez-Díaz says.

M, who sent that text to Kelly, agrees that communication is more important than ever.

“People been doing shady shit before COVID, but you should always be communicating, ‘Hey, this is what I want from a relationship, this is what I’m looking for,’” he says. “A lot of people don’t want to say that because they don’t want to be rejected, but if you say this upfront, you’ll find someone who fits.”