Stacey Griffith has been a star SoulCycle instructor for over a decade. For 45 minutes, she teaches her riders how to ride the beat, how to turn a knob that increases the resistance they push, and how to ‘find their passion and purpose’ on bikes that aren’t going anywhere. Her classes are legendary and sell out again and again, which is said to make her the highest-paid SoulCycle instructor in the business, at $ 800 per class.
And on Friday, she says she used those credentials to score her first shot of the Moderna vaccine.
“Now I can teach SoulCycle with a little more confidence that it will all be fine,” she wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post. She tagged five people who she says helped her “fill out online forms” and “submit paperwork” to obtain the vaccine.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22274399/Z4t0ZWuj.jpg)
Griffith is based in New York City, where the city’s health department is in phase 1b of the vaccine rollout, making health workers, grocery workers, residents over 65, and teachers eligible for the vaccine. Under those guidelines, Griffith was ineligible, but she told the Daily Beast that she got the vaccine because she was an ‘educator’ whose priority is to ‘keep my community and their respiratory systems working at full power so they can beat this virus if they are infected by it. “
How poorly the rollout of the vaccine has been conducted and how difficult it has been for people who have To do qualifying to receive the vaccine, Griffith’s explanation raised questions about what Griffith and her team had filled out on the said forms.
Griffith’s Instagram account was bombarded by furious commenters who asked why and how she was able to get a dose before people who might need it due to underlying pre-existing health conditions or age.
The scandal got so big that Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio discussed Griffith’s vaccine at a press conference last weekend and said she should not have gotten it.
“Doesn’t sound like someone who should have been vaccinated for me,” said de Blasio. “I don’t think anyone who shows up and says, ‘Hey, I’m a SoulCycle Instructor’ should have qualified unless there’s some other factor.”
While Griffith’s vaccination is undoubtedly tabloid-worthy, it symbolizes the greater frustrations surrounding the vaccine’s introduction to the US. Even though there are rules about who can get the vaccine, being prosperous and having good contacts can help a person to jump the line. And as eligible parties refuse to participate and vaccines threaten to go bad in some locations, the bigger conversation revolves around one question: who “deserves” to get the vaccine?
SoulCycle distanced himself from the vaccine from its star instructor
Officially, SoulCycle has distanced itself from Griffith’s actions. A spokesperson told me that the company had no role in scoring the vaccine for the famous instructor:
Stacey Griffith worked in a personal capacity applying for a COVID-19 vaccine in NY state. SoulCycle does not play a role in organizing or obtaining vaccinations for instructors or other employees, nor do we encourage our SoulCycle employees to seek vaccination priority as educators.
Likewise, the SoulCycle CEO wrote in a memo sent to staff on Monday that instructors should not try to get the vaccine by claiming to be educators. A former employee sent me part of the company-wide memo:
… 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 otherwise eligible to do so, based on applicable government regulations.
Within the company, some of Griffith’s fellow instructors are angry that she seemingly skipped the line. Some specifically called her at her post and asked her decision. An insider with knowledge of Griffith’s riders at SoulCycle’s outdoor rooftop venue in Tribeca said some of her regular riders boasted about vaccination, while others refused to adhere to the masking protocols at the site, a stress point for the staff who care for them. away.
A current instructor told me that Griffith’s post had bad repercussions on the business, showing the gap between SoulCycle’s words and his actions. This lines up with SoulCycle’s image issues of late. After reporting on the company for months, I discovered that executives complained about a toxic work environment, including the wealthy clients who act rude, instructor rivalries, and a system that feeds exclusivity while preaching values of community and togetherness.
“This is exactly the problem with Soul,” a current instructor told me. We must practice what we preach. We are bloody mad especially knowing bankruptcy is such a risk in this market. “
Like many group fitness brands, SoulCycle has seen the pandemic crush its revenues in the United States as the studios fail to open. Griffith’s critics argued that this decision by arguably the company’s most famous instructor was a bad look for a company already struggling financially.
While Griffith was getting her dose, the country is failing to get people from them
But the outsized response to Griffith and SoulCycle also represents a bigger story.
There are probably a lot of people who have never taken a SoulCycle class, nor know Griffith, but know what the brand stands for: a luxury for affluent, well-connected people. That Griffith can get the vaccine symbolizes how easy it can be for wealthy people to get what they want before everyone else, especially those who qualify under NYC guidelines and have not yet been able to book an appointment.
That Griffith got her first dose of the Moderna vaccine seemingly so easily amid the messy state rollout and national chaos indicates how inequality underscores this pandemic. And how rich and well-connected can give you an edge over people who are considered a priority by health officials based on age, necessity and vulnerability.
The question of who “deserves” the vaccine is a complicated one, and some experts argue that we should vaccinate as many people as possible without worrying so much about the order. But if there is no order, it undermines the system. And it remains true that the vaccine is in high demand, and Griffith’s story includes stories of how difficult it has been for people, especially the elderly and people of color, to schedule appointments.
A CNN op-ed describes how difficult it was for the writer to give her parents the vaccine and how the Arizona Department of Health lost their appointment details. Similar stories of glitches and struggles exist in New York City and South Carolina. In Jackson Heights in New York City, a Covid-19 vaccination site targeting a severely affected Latino community, his appointments saw his appointments mostly gobbled up by whites from outside the community, CNN reported. There are also reports of vaccines being dumped, as well as stories of shortages.
On Monday, Griffith posted an apology on Instagram.
“I would like to apologize with the bottom of my heart for my recent action in receiving the vaccine,” she wrote. “I made a terrible error of judgment and I am really sorry.”
Griffith did not allow comments on the post. She is still on the company’s schedule.