Nowadays, online dating seems less a game of hit or miss than medical truth or dare, given the deal-breaker question, “Are you vaccinated?”
Businesswomen Shelby Thomson and Heather Pyle of Maui, Hawaii, found the online dating game a frustrating experience for the un-jabbed at the height of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in 2021.Faced with discrimination and censorship, many unvaccinated people lost jobs and relationships because they chose to remain unvaccinated. The un-jabbed “didn’t have the option to say they were unvaccinated” to potential online dating partners, Thomson said.
“They were only allowed to be vaccinated. And you had to have this badge in your [online] profile.”
Too often, the unvaccinated would hear on dating sites, “Swipe left”—move on.
In May 2021, the two business partners, moms, and best friends launched “Unjected,” a dating app for the unvaccinated, on the Google and Apple stores.
“We started seeing people wanting to find partners,” Thomson said of their unvaccinated friends.
However, soon after the app’s launch, Thomson and Pyle started receiving hate emails, then negative publicity in the media. Apple decided to remove “Unjected” from the app store, claiming it provided medical disinformation.
“We tailored everything and played this chess game until it [met] Apple standards,” Thomson recalled. But it still wasn’t enough.
“It took us until July 31 to get banned.”
When Google threatened to follow suit, Thomson and Pyle pulled the plug on both media giants, and Unjected.com went live using the web domain host GoDaddy in August 2021.
“We decided—OK—the big-tech world is not our friend. They don’t want us to exist in this realm. They'll always go out of their way to ensure we’re censored or taken down.”
Thomson said “Unjected” is more than a dating service for the unvaccinated. It’s also a blood bank database and a fertility bank for the unvaccinated.
Pandemic of Censorship
“Unjected was founded to help us easier connect in a world of medical discrimination and censorship,” according to Unjected’s online introduction.“We all have a lot in common when it comes to being conscious about our choices, and we think that there are great connections to be made when like-minded people gather in the same social space.”
Thomson said 2021 was the fastest-growing year for the new dating site because so many unvaccinated people had lost their jobs in the pandemic.
“The [vaccine] mandates were heavily enforced. Now, we’re seeing the trend differently. People are starting to realize things they didn’t before,” Thomson said.
“It’s been interesting to see how many people still find their way in every group. It’s not limited to any age group.”
Thomson described the unvaccinated population as a health-conscious group concerned about their children’s future—living and unborn.
“We used to get almost 1,000 emails a day before the app launched from people wanting to join.
“Occasionally, there’s the keyboard warriors who chime in. ‘You’re killing people. The vaccines are safe.’”
As the world’s “first unvaccinated dating platform,” Thomson said “Unjected” is part of an unvaccinated blood matching coalition that includes the Pureblood Registry, Blessed by His Blood, and Safeblood, founded by Swiss naturopathic physician George Della Pietra.
Thomson refers to the coalition as the “Blood Superteam.”
Non-Partisan Appeal
“We also had an entire section for business listings as well. It was very multi-faceted. It wasn’t just people looking [for a date],” Thomson said.“We want the most dedicated people. It’s time to begin funding ourselves within our community. The support has been incredible.”
Thomson said, as “Unjected” co-founder, she has learned to deal with online detractors and threats of censorship. As a professional photographer, she even had clients cancel on her because of her position against the mRNA vaccines.
“It even reverberated in my personal life,” said Thomson, whose had her personal and commercial photography pages deleted on Instagram.
One person asked, “Are you that anti-vax person I see all over Google? Is this the same person? Because I don’t want you taking my pictures,” Thomson said.
“I’ve always been on the unvaxxed team,” Thomson said.
“I do believe a vaccinated child is a patient for life. I was getting kicked out of the doctor’s office long before 2020.”
Ironically, “Unjected” clients include conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, and many others concerned about the safety of mRNA vaccines.
“It’s such a melting pot—also politically speaking, it’s authentic people coming together,” Thomson said. “We have 70-year-old grandmas looking for friends. Many members said they used to be die-hard liberals.”
Like everything else, Thomson said it’s about making choices free of coercion.
“I see the need for dating and companionship [among the unvaccinated.] That will always be a kind of uphill growth because people want to find love and families,” Thomson said.
