Power must truly corrupt and make people think they can get away with anything (although I’d still like to be given the chance to test my mettle against its siren call). Today’s case study: Dr. Jay Varma served as then-NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Covid czar” from April 2020 to May 2021, and was a part of the core team who planned NYC’s vaccine rollout. So his tenure covered the bleakest days of Covid when we were on strict lockdown until the vaccines were available to offer a bridge back to normality. As a public health official amid a once in a century pandemic, you would expect Dr. Varma to model the safety precautions/behaviors (like masking and social distancing) that he was asking of the Big Apple’s citizenry, no? Yeah, well guess who was just outed as having attended two parties during that time? Dr. Varma no longer works for the city, but on Monday he was sacked from his current pharmaceutical job
The board of directors at SIGA Technologies terminated Dr. Jay Varma effective immediately “other than for cause,” according to a filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Varma was the company’s executive vice president and chief medical officer, the filing says. He was also on its board of directors.
A company spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. A spokesman for Varma would not comment.
The policies adopted in New York City while Varma was former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s senior public health adviser and an architect of the city’s vaccine strategy attracted national attention after Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving was banned from playing basketball in New York City when he refused to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Varma acknowledged the prohibited gatherings after a conservative podcaster posted video last week of what appeared to be hidden camera recordings that showed Varma describing them.
In a previous statement released by his spokesman, Varma did not dispute the authenticity of the videos but said they were secretly recorded, “spliced, diced and taken out of context.” The spokesman would not say how they were taken out of context.
In the recordings, Varma can be heard describing a “sex party” that he attended at a hotel with his wife and eight to 10 other people in August 2020, as well as an indoor dance bash in July 2021 attended by more than 200 people.
Varma can be heard describing the first event in the recordings as “just being naked with friends.”
At the time of the second event, New York state had raised the limit on outdoor gatherings from 200 to 500 people. Varma’s spokesman previously said that he was a part-time City Hall consultant at the time and that all participants were vaccinated.
“I served in City Hall between April 2020 – May 2021,” Varma said in the statement. “During that time, I participated in two private gatherings. I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time.”
For the love of Lady Liberty, where do we start?! I love (and by “love” I mean am eye rolling) that the most responsibility Dr. Varma could muster in his statement of taking responsibility is “for not using the best judgment.” Dude can’t even directly say he used bad judgment. Moving on to the dance party in July 2021, I realize I’m a homebody, but what indoor dance bashes are going on under my nose in this city? With 200+ people no less! I’d like to know the venue, the playlist, and all dance genres the revelers partook in. You know, as part of public record and apology to NYC. But of course the biggie is the August 2020 sex party. I have several questions. How do you go about putting feelers out there to gauge who else is down for an orgy in the middle of lockdown? Whilst also keeping it on the down-low because you’re telling the rest of New York to exhibit the exact opposite behavior? Who came up with this brilliant idea? No really, how severe do personal circumstances need to be that putting together an orgy during a deadly health crisis is the only way forward? WHAT HOTEL? And not for nothing, but is it not an extra layer of dumb that Dr. Varma was outed not by video recordings of either party, but by sound recordings of him bragging about them?
Friendly reminder: now is a great time to get your Covid and Flu shots! I just got mine yesterday!
Screenshots from YouTube/Fox 5 Good Day New York and CBS New York
“Naked with friends” would have been a bridge too far even if I’d already finished my first cup of coffee. What is wrong with people? (Rhetorical question. Do not expect an answer.)
I dated a man whose brother and wife were swingers.
COVID slowed them down a little, but not too much. Idk, swingers gotta swing (shudders).
OMG who invited the government-employed epidemiologist to their illegal orgy during lockdown? Clearly all his naked friends know he has no principles or professional ethics to even consider it.
What’s wrong with those people?
JV as an epidemiologist should know how infections are spread, and how long it takes until they show up in tests, meaning he should know how many people out of 10, or more than 200, are viral spreaders despite testing clear — if they tested at all.
How can an epidemiologist willingly show up to super-spreader events?
Not only that, he was the person in NYC who was responsible for developing the testing and contact-tracing protocol.
I just can’t, and I really hope, for his sake *and* for the sake of public health, that he will never find a job again in epidemiology, infection control, or even in medicine. The hippocratic “do no harm” doesn’t seem to apply to him.
🎯
I know.
It’s like he knew he wasn’t at risk or something.
Ugh, Steven Crowder (the conservative podcaster who outed Jay Varma) is awful. And so is Jay Varma, who felt like he was above the law and put lives at risk!
I wish we didn’t find out about this via SC, but JV deserved the backlash. NYC was in international news for the Covid deaths—NY was one of the areas where Democrats and Republicans agreed more on masking because of the pandemic fallout in their area.
I had family in NYC during that time, doctors at the frontline who were wearing five layers of protection to work, dealing with Covid patients and/or Covid testing. We were so worried about them. And this dumbass was attending naked parties with friends. GTFO.
This! Doctors, nurses, medical technicians, even hospital housekeepers were all risking their lives to help deal with the crisis. The death toll was so frightening and lockdown was seriously imposed to save lives. But this fool just had to get with his fellow swingers while lecturing others to observe all pandemic rules. Hypocrites don’t come much bigger!
😬/🤢
I live in a loft in SoHo, NYC. Right before lockdown started we got new neighbors upstairs, four young finance guys. They had a party every Thursday during lockdown and every Thursday I would call 311 to report it. I would get a text that read that the situation was dealt with even though the party would still rave on with these idiots who partied like frat boys and drunk sorority girls. One day I decided to go out to wait for the cop car after I reported another party. They pulled up and didn’t get out of the car. I received a text saying the situation was dealt with. I then went to the police car and knocked on their window to tell them they actually have to get out of their car to deal with the situation. I then led them directly to the door of the young men and for the first time the party was interrupted and over. The officers were not happy with me. They were very disgruntled. Two weeks later the parties resumed and I gave up. I saw how the city and police department worked. This city has been quiet quitting for quite a while.
If it was Summer of 2020, I can understand the police being unwilling to enforce the law too strictly…or leave their precincts at all.
Yeah right. Why should police do their job or enforce the law and prevent further spread of Covid?
‘Power must truly corrupt and make people think they can get away with anything’
Look how long Trump has gotten away with everything. And is STILL getting away with everything. Why would he think he wouldn’t get away with being a corrupt criminal when he’s done it his entire life and had zero consequences?
Anyone who decided to completely disregard COVID restrictions knowing what could happen to themselves and others don’t get a lot of sympathy from me. And the guy (a DOCTOR!) in charge of all things COVID in one of the largest city’s in the world CERTAINLY doesn’t get an ounce of my sympathy. Naked with friends? Sir. No.
He’d rather get covid than not get to bone some strange. Period.
To quote Christopher HItchens mocking Woody Allen – “The dick wants what it wants.”