Town’s ex-COVID czar acquired the boot from his job at a pharmaceutical agency Monday — every week after he was caught bragging about internet hosting intercourse events and attending an underground rave on the peak of the pandemic.
Dr. Jay Varma was serving as a senior well being adviser to then-Mayor Invoice de Blasio throughout COVID-19 when he and his spouse placed on the sex- and drug-fueled debauchery and attended a packed Wall Avenue rave, in accordance with secretly recorded conversations the physician had with a girl.
“On September 23, 2024, the Board of Administrators of SIGA Applied sciences (NASDAQ: SIGA) terminated Dr. Jay Varma, efficient instantly, aside from for trigger, from his place as Govt Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of the Firm,” the agency wrote in a submitting to the Securties and Alternate Fee.
“Pursuant to the phrases of his employment settlement, Dr. Varma’s service on the Firm’s Board of Administrators additionally robotically ended efficient instantly,” mentioned the submitting, which is required when an occasion happens that’s deemed to have an effect on public-company shareholders.
Varma critic and metropolis Councilman Bob Holden mentioned in a blistering assertion, “Dr. Jay Varma’s firing is a step in the proper path, however the penalties for his actions are lengthy overdue.”
“Varma boasted about harassing individuals into submission over the vaccine mandate and admitted to collaborating in unlawful intercourse events, all whereas he, former Well being Commissioner Dr. David Chokshi, and then-Mayor Invoice de Blasio imposed draconian measures that shut down the complete metropolis,” the Queens Democrat mentioned.
“The hypocrisy is outrageous.”
Varma’s seamy chats — which included him boasting,” I did all this deviant, like sexual stuff,” and, “I needed to be type of sneaky about it … as a result of I used to be operating the complete COVID response within the metropolis” — had been made public final week by conservative podcaster Steven Crowder.
His firing got here as enraged metropolis enterprise house owners and oldsters joined lawmakers on the steps of Metropolis Corridor on Monday to rally towards the randy physician, saying that whereas they had been masking up, retaining their youngsters dwelling from college and taking different precautionary measures towards lethal COVID — beneath his instruction — he was getting up shut and private with throngs of individuals.
“Whereas grandmothers took their final breaths alone on chilly hospital beds, Dr. Varma was fulfilling his sick fantasies with tons of of sweaty strangers,” metropolis Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn) raged.
Michael Kane of Lecturers for Alternative mentioned, ‘What disgusts me essentially the most was listening to Varma say having drug-fueled group intercourse orgies was needed for him to be his ‘genuine self’ as a result of COVID had him ‘pent up.’ “
Varma mentioned at one level on the tape, “My spouse and I had one with our buddies in August [2020] of like that first summer season.
“So we rented a resort … all of us took, like, you understand, molly [MDMA] and prefer it was like eight or 9 or us, eight to 10 of us had been in a room and everyone had a blast as a result of everyone was like so pent up.”
He mentioned of the June 2021 rave, which tons of of partygoers attended, “Folks had been like, ‘Aren’t you afraid? Aren’t you embarrassed?’ and I used to be like, ‘No, truly, I’m like, I like being my genuine self.’ “
He additionally hosted one other intercourse occasion in November 2020, a supply near his camp instructed The Submit on Monday.
Philip Hickey, the previous proprietor of GlenPatrick’s Pub in Maspeth, Queens, who attended Monday’s rally, mentioned “1000’s of lives and companies,” together with his personal, had been destroyed by the pandemic and its lockdowns.
Mum or dad Yiantin Chu mentioned she watched her 9-year-old languish at dwelling for over three months whereas attempting to navigate the Schooling Division’s distant studying methods.
“The COVID insurance policies that had been purported to be for ‘2 weeks solely’ within the spring of 2020 upended the lives of over one million college students and their households in NYC,” Chu mentioned.
The Varma supply mentioned the physician “technically didn’t violate the mandate.
“That’s what was taken out of context, that he was violating guidelines, which he wasn’t,” the supply mentioned.
Varma himself has mentioned in a press release, “In these personal conversations that had been secretly recorded, spliced, diced, and brought out of context, I referred to occasions that transpired 4 years in the past. Between April 2020 – Might 2021, I participated in two personal gatherings. I take duty for not utilizing the most effective judgment on the time.”
The edited clips of Varma had been filmed on a hidden digicam and had been recorded between July 27 and Aug. 14 in New York. The Submit has not reviewed the complete, unedited recordings.
Siga didn’t reply to a Submit request for remark Monday.
-Extra reporting by Matthew Sedacca