The city’s former COVID czar was fired from his position at a pharmaceutical company on Monday, just a week after being exposed for bragging about organizing sex parties and attending an underground rave during the height of the pandemic.
Dr. Jay Varma, who served as a senior health adviser to then-Mayor Bill de Blasio during the COVID-19 pandemic, allegedly hosted drug-fueled sex parties with his wife and attended a crowded rave in Wall Street, according to secretly recorded conversations between Varma and a woman.
On September 23, 2024, SIGA Technologies (NASDAQ: SIGA) made an announcement in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission: “The Board of Directors of SIGA Technologies terminated Dr. Jay Varma, effective immediately, other than for cause, from his position as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of the Company.”
The company also noted, “Pursuant to the terms of his employment agreement, Dr. Varma’s service on the Company’s Board of Directors also automatically ended effective immediately,” in compliance with regulations concerning events that impact public company shareholders.
City Councilman Bob Holden, a vocal critic of Varma, issued a scathing statement about the firing: “Dr. Jay Varma’s firing is a step in the right direction, but the consequences for his actions are long overdue.”
He added, “Varma boasted about harassing people into submission over the vaccine mandate and admitted to participating in illegal sex parties, all while he, former Health Commissioner Dr. David Chokshi, and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio imposed draconian measures that shut down the entire city. The hypocrisy is outrageous.”
The damning conversations, made public by conservative podcaster Steven Crowder, included Varma bragging, “I did all this deviant, like sexual stuff,” and admitting, “I had to be kind of sneaky about it … because I was running the entire COVID response in the city.”
His dismissal came amidst mounting outrage from city business owners, parents, and lawmakers, who rallied on the steps of City Hall on Monday. They expressed fury that while they were following strict health protocols, Varma was engaging in risky behavior at large gatherings.
City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn) echoed the frustration: “While grandmothers took their last breaths alone on cold hospital beds, Dr. Varma was fulfilling his sick fantasies with hundreds of sweaty strangers.”
Michael Kane, representing Teachers for Choice, shared his own disgust: “What disgusts me the most was hearing Varma say having drug-fueled group sex orgies was necessary for him to be his ‘authentic self’ because COVID had him ‘pent up.’”
In one of the tapes, Varma described a party he and his wife hosted in August 2020: “So we rented a hotel … we all took, like, you know, molly [MDMA] and like it was like eight or nine or us, eight to 10 of us were in a room and everybody had a blast because everybody was like so pent up.”
He also referenced a rave he attended in June 2021, attended by hundreds, saying, “People were like, ‘Aren’t you afraid? Aren’t you embarrassed?’ and I was like, ‘No, actually, I’m like, I love being my authentic self.'”
A source close to Varma confirmed that he hosted another sex party in November 2020.
Philip Hickey, a former pub owner in Queens, attended the rally and lamented how the pandemic had devastated his business and countless others, stating, “thousands of lives and businesses were destroyed.”
Parent Yiantin Chu also reflected on the impact, explaining how her 9-year-old struggled with remote learning for over three months during the school closures: “The COVID policies that were supposed to be for ‘2 weeks only’ in the spring of 2020 upended the lives of over a million students and their families in NYC.”
A source familiar with Varma’s actions argued that he “technically didn’t violate the mandate,” and that the perception of him breaking the rules was taken out of context.
In a statement, Varma defended himself: “In those private conversations that were secretly recorded, spliced, diced, and taken out of context, I referred to events that transpired four years ago. Between April 2020 – May 2021, I participated in two private gatherings. I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time.”
The edited footage of Varma was captured via hidden camera between July 27 and August 14 in New York. The Post has not reviewed the full, unedited recordings.
Source: New York Post
