Should you wait for a vaccine or is it safe to date this cuffing season?

Cuffing season is the most wonderful time of the year: all the rushing past red flags and smushing bodies until the sun finally rises again in February. Okay so maybe it’s not the most wonderful time for good relationships and emotional habits, but it is a staple of the dating cycle - along with summer flings and spring weddings.

Now that there’s a vaccine on the horizon but 4 months of winter to get through first, cuffing season is looking more appealing than ever. The question is: is it safe to find a short term beau this season? Iman Hariri-Kia, Bustle's sex and relationships editor and the illustrious host of No Shame Sex Ed, chatted with two experts - Dr. Natasha Bhuyan, a family provider and One Medical regional director, and Emily Depasse, a sexologist who specializes in STI stigma - to discuss the risks and benefits of settling down with a short term partner in a pandemic.