Stacey Griffith, a New York City instructor, said she drove an hour to Staten Island to get the Modern vaccine, according to an Instagram post that has since been deleted but circulated online, credited to Griffith’s account.
“Now I can teach @soulcycle with a little more faith that we will all be fine if we get the (vaccine),” said his post.
CNN contacted Griffith, but received no response.
SoulCycle, however, distanced itself from Griffith’s actions.
“Stacey Griffith operated on a personal basis when applying for a NY state COVID-19 vaccine,” a SoulCycle spokesman told CNN in a statement on Wednesday. “SoulCycle plays no role in organizing or obtaining vaccines for instructors or other employees, nor do we encourage any of our SoulCycle employees to pursue vaccine priority as educators.”
De Blasio was specifically asked about Griffith’s eligibility to go through the Phase 1B process.
“It doesn’t sound like someone who should have been vaccinated for me,” said de Blasio. “I don’t think anyone who comes up and says, ‘Hey, I’m a SoulCycle instructor’ should qualify, unless there is something else there. That should have been detected in the application process.”
New York City Department of Health commissioner Dave Chokshi added that he was unaware of the details about that specific incident, but in terms of the overall process, each person is responsible for proving their eligibility at the vaccination site and, if not be able, they would be rejected.
Chokshi said he was at the same vaccination site on Staten Island on Friday as Griffith and saw that the eligibility screening process was being followed by administrators.
On Monday, Griffith made a public statement on his Instagram page.
“I want to apologize wholeheartedly for my recent action on receiving the vaccine,” she wrote. “I made a terrible error of judgment and that’s why I’m really sorry.”