Dr. Jay Varma, a senior health adviser to then-Mayor Bill de Blasio during the COVID-19 crisis, was fired from his role. His dismissal came just a week after being exposed for boasting about hosting sex parties and attending an underground rave during the height of the pandemic.
Dr. Varma was involved in organizing drug and s*x-fueled gatherings and attending a crowded rave on Wall Street, according to secretly recorded conversations he had with a woman.
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On September 23, 2024, SIGA Technologies announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Dr. Jay Varma had been immediately terminated from his position as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. The filing noted that under the terms of his employment agreement, Dr. Varma’s position on the company’s Board of Directors also ended immediately.
His dismissal followed a public outcry from furious business owners, parents, and lawmakers, who gathered on the steps of City Hall. They expressed outrage that, while they were following his guidance to mask up, keep their children out of school, and take precautions against COVID-19, Varma was attending large gatherings in violation of the rules he helped implement.
Dr. Jay Varma’s explicit conversations, in which he bragged about engaging in deviant sexual activities and admitted to being secretive about it because he was overseeing the city’s COVID response, were made public last week by conservative podcaster Steven Crowder.
NYC Councilwoman Inna Vernikov called Dr. Jay Varma a ‘sicko’
City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov criticized Dr. Varma, stating that while elderly individuals were dying alone in hospital beds during the pandemic, he was indulging in his personal fantasies with large groups of strangers.
She also urged Mayor Adams to halt the appeals, reinstate and compensate all dismissed workers, and bring justice to those who were affected by the mandates imposed under Dr. Jay Varma’s leadership.
Inna Vernikov said:
“People couldn’t attend burials of their own parents all while one sicko, yes I said it, one sicko was partying at the same time he was mandating this on all New Yorkers. This is disgusting below the belt it must be investigated.”
City Councilman Bob Holden also condemned his actions, stating that while the termination was overdue, it was a step in the right direction. Holden highlighted Varma's hypocrisy, noting that despite imposing strict regulations during the pandemic, Varma and other officials were involved in what were described as illicit sex parties.
In a statement to The New York Times, Dr. Varma acknowledged that the recordings were genuine but claimed they had been "spliced, diced, and taken out of context." He confirmed attending three gatherings between August 2020 and June 2021.
In the recording, Varma recounted an event from August 2020 when he and his wife hosted a gathering with friends. He described renting a hotel room where eight to ten people took MDMA and enjoyed themselves, noting that everyone had been feeling confined at the time.
A Harvard and University of California graduate, Dr. Jay Varma joined the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service in 2001 and led a study on an E. coli outbreak at an Ohio county fair.
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