Valentine’s Day During COVID

A 5-minute “safe dating checklist” keeps dates safer.

By Minda Aguhob, Vytality Health

Dating during coronavirus. Here’s a “safe dating checklist” so you can safely meet people on dates in real life.

I did not date AT ALL during 2020. Not one date… until my first “first date” on December 7, 2020. I was terrified. But, I really liked him. And in the end, dating means being together in real life, not just online!

After several video chats my date and I agreed to wear our masks when we met in person at his place. We went to the backyard, had a great chat, and neither of us got the COVID.

Here’s a checklist I used with him for our chat, inspired by 4 years I spent researching safety checklists in a Brooklyn hospital. This standard process turns out to be helpful for spending high quality time anyone in real life.

Now, I don’t encourage socializing that much personally. It’s obviously safer to isolate. But Harm Reduction is a health idea from addiction research. It says that while meeting people in person can be dangerous, there are things we can do to be safer. (Check out this Psychology Today article — and replace the words alcohol, drugs and substances with “need to socialize during COVID.”)

Here’s the safe dating checklist. Both you and your date wear masks and stay masked during this conversation at the beginning of your date.

Safe Dating Checklist

1. EXPOSURE. Have you, or anyone you know, been knowingly exposed to someone with COVID?
2. SYMPTOMS. Do you have any symptoms? (Cough, fever, etc.)
3. TESTING. Have you been tested for COVID in the past 14 days? What was the result?
4. POTENTIAL RISKS. In the past week, what potentially risky exposure have you experienced, EG: How often you were unmasked or not social distancing around others, how many people, outdoors or indoors, what was the quality of ventilation?

Then you decide upon the level of risk you present: Low, Medium or High Risk.

Low or Medium Risk = We present a relatively low risk to each other, eg tested negatively, isolated during the week, etc. Then you can decide whether to keep your masks on or off, and how you will conduct your date/event.

High Risk = We present a high risk to each other, eg tested positively, have symptoms, didn’t isolate during the week and went unmasked around people with no distancing, etc. So, you both agree to keep your masks on, social distance, limit your time together, do less risky activities together, OR end and reschedule the date/event.

It’s amazing, the level of detail that comes up — things you might have forgotten without a 4-point checklist.

I’ll leave it there for now. Try it out, and let me know how it goes!

About the Author

Minda Aguhob, Chief People Officer and Co-Founder of Vytality Health

Minda Aguhob is a health advocate and data scientist who’s focused on the challenge of bringing communities together using technology in a “humanizing” way. With over 20 years of experience in health and education tech, she originated and co-founded Vytality Health, a social support network for people’s health and caring journeys.

The company has formed The Co-Caring Initiative nonprofit and launched Changing the World: Co-Caring, a business support platform for building wider collaborations among change makers .