Anthony Fauci: Hooking Up via Dating App in Coronavirus Era Is a ‘Risk’

In this Wednesday, May 29, 2019 file photo, a woman checks the Grindr app on her mobile ph
AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, file

Dr. Anthony Fauci told listeners on Snapchat’s Good Luck America on Tuesday that meeting up with someone after connecting on a dating app is a matter of deciding how much risk one feels comfortable taking.

During the interview, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and prominent member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, was asked, “If you’re swiping on a dating app like Tinder or Bumble or Grindr, and you match with someone that you think is hot, and you’re just kind of like, ‘Maybe it’s fine if this one stranger comes over,’ what do you say to that person?”

“You know, that’s tough,” Fauci said in a New York Post story about the interview. “Because that’s what’s called relative risk.”

“If you’re willing to take a risk — and you know, everybody has their own tolerance for risks — you could figure out if you want to meet somebody,” Fauci said. “If you want to go a little bit more intimate, well, then that’s your choice regarding a risk.”

The only caveat Fauci said is that people might not be as healthy as they seem.

“But what we’re seeing, which becomes really problematic, is that there’s a considerable amount of transmission from an asymptomatic person,” Fauci said.

The Post story noted that Fauci has been nominated for People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” award.

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