Dating is difficult at the best of times, but the pandemic has brought its own unique challenges. Couples must abide by rules around masks and social distancing while remaining “alert” to a deadly virus.

But for those who simply don’t want to, a controversial new dating forum has entered the scene.

Toby Young launched the dating forum Love in a Covid Climate on Sunday for people who are critical of the lockdown that has been in place since March. The forum has been described as “the antidote to social distancing”, and is part of Young’s Lockdown Sceptics site, which carries the motto “Stay sceptical. End the lockdown. Save lives.”

The dating venture was criticised and ridiculed as soon as it was announced, with suggestions that it should instead be called “OKStupid”, “Lovesick”, or “Unhinged”.

But Young said the dangers were overstated. “Most people wildly exaggerate the risk posed by the virus … according to John Ioannidis, the Stanford professor of medicine, you’re more likely to die in a road traffic accident if you’re under 65.”

He added: “I’ve created Love in a Covid Climate for people who are properly informed about the risk, realise how small it is and want to meet other scientifically literate people who haven’t succumbed to what Bernard-Henri Lévy calls ‘psychotic delirium’.”

Young set up the forum after receiving an email from a reader who wanted to date someone who shared his views on lockdown. The email stated: “As I begin my journey back into the dating pool, I will be expressing openly my lockdown views and Covid scepticism on my dating profile. I genuinely think that if I can find a girl as sceptical as me, she must therefore be marriage material!”

There have been 61 posts on the forum so far, including one that reads: “Clever and good looking guy, happy to date and kiss un-masked 35-50 ladies (slim, intelligent, confident and kind). N. Derbyshire/S. Yorkshire.”

Another says: “No nonsense, 48, divorced. Fed up to the back teeth of this ‘woke’ nonsense and the bit by bit destruction of a once decent country. Never worn a mask and won’t now, certainly not dictated to by that phoney Johnson! Like real ale, decent music and motorsports.”

Young believes the forum could be a great success and said it was already the most popular section of the website. “To date, Lockdown Sceptics has had over 2.5m page views – not bad considering I launched it in April,” he said.