A SoulCycle instructor who got a COVID vaccine in New York is fueling the fear that wealthy, well-connected people will be able to skip the line
For more than a decade, Stacey Griffith was one of SoulCycle’s top instructors in New York. Your classes run out consistently, which means, according to Vox, that she earns $ 800 per 45-minute lesson. And last week, Griffith shared an Instagram post saying that she received the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine by classifying herself as an “educator”. In the midst of a chaotic vaccine launch, this is what we all feared would happen – for the rich and well-connected to exploit the gaps to jump ahead of the vaccine line.
“Now I can teach SoulCycle with a little more faith that we will all be fine,” Griffith wrote in a post now deleted from Instagram, where she thanked five people who helped her “fill out online forms” and “send the paperwork” to get the vaccine.
Griffith was vaccinated in New York City’s Staten Island neighborhood, which is in Phase 1B of the city’s health department for vaccine implantation. This means that currently health professionals, grocery workers, residents over 65 and teachers can be vaccinated. As an instructor at SoulCycle, Griffith is not eligible in New York City, but she told the media that she said on her forms that she is an “educator” who is working to “keep my community and its respiratory systems operating at full capacity. that they can beat this virus if they become infected with it. ”
Griffith was harshly criticized in the comments on her Instagram post before removing it. People, rightly, wanted to know why she got the vaccine before the people who needed it because of their age, pre-existing health problems or risky work environments. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio even spoke about the scandal during a weekend press conference.
“It doesn’t sound like someone who should have been vaccinated for me,” he said. “I don’t think anyone who comes up and says, ‘Hey, I’m a SoulCycle instructor’ should be qualified, unless there is some other factor there.”
SoulCycle issued a statement distancing itself from Griffith and discouraging its employees from declaring themselves educators to be vaccinated.
“Stacey Griffith operated on a personal basis when applying for a NY state COVID-19 vaccine,” the statement said. “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.”
The CEO of SoulCycle sent a memo to employees that said: “… SoulCycle instructors do not qualify as educators to receive the vaccine based solely on their role at SoulCycle and should not attempt to receive the vaccine unless they are qualified to do so. , based on appropriate state regulations. “