Underground rave, sex party with friends: What Jay Varma, ex-NY Covid advisor, was doing during pandemic

Rules for me, but not for thee.

That seems to be the attitude of government officials with regard to Covid-19.

Yet another report has surfaced about someone who served in government flouting the lockdown rules – this time, the ex-New York advisor on Covid, according to several media reports.

Dr Jay Varma, who was advising the previous Bill de Blasio administration on social distancing, has been caught admitting he attended an underground rave and organised a sex party with his wife and her friends at the height of the pandemic.

The revelations came to light courtesy of a sting operation posted by conservative activist Steven Crowder.

The recording has been made by Crowder’s Mug Club Undercover.

But who is he? What happened? What do we know about the details?

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Let’s take a closer look:

Who is he?

First, let’s take a brief look at Varma.

His LinkedIn profile describes him as a physician executive and epidemiologist

He is currently executive vice-president and chief medical officer at SIGA technologies.

He has written over 150 scientific manuscripts and essays, co-authored a book, and made over 100 appearances on outlets such as CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and NPR.

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Varma was New York’s senior public health adviser from April 2020 to May 2021.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Varma “led strategy, developed programs, and supported innovation for the City of New York’s COVID-19 pandemic response.”

He also served as New York City’s principal scientific spokesperson and appeared daily alongside then mayor de Blasio at his press conferences about the COVID-19 pandemic.

“From May 2021 onward, I continued in this role part-time as a consultant,” his profile reads.

He attended the UC San Diego School of Medicine and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a BA in history and science.

What happened?

Varma was caught describing how he attended raves during the pandemic as well as hosted a sexy party with his wife and their friends.

Varma said he attended an underground dance party in May or June 2021 underneath a bank in New York City where “everybody’s high.”

“And I was so happy because I hadn’t done that… in like a year or whatever. But I was looking around being like, f***, I wonder if anybody sees me and they’re going to be pissed because this was not Covid-friendly,” he was quoted as saying by New York Post.

Asked about sex parties during COVID-19, Varma said he and his wife invited some friends to a hotel room but took precautions to get everyone tested.

“It was fun. We all took… Molly [Ecstasy/MDMA] and it was… eight to 10 of us in a room and everybody had a blast because everybody was like so pent up because like everybody was stuck together and stuff like that. And sometimes it isn’t so much about like penetrative sexual stuff. Some of it is just something about like bodies being close to each other. Just being naked with friends.”

Varma made the admissions during several different encounters with a woman who remains off-camera.

“I had to be kind of sneaky about it… because I was running the entire COVID response in the city,” Varma was quoted as saying by the New York Post.

“I did all this deviant, sexual stuff while I was on TV… and people are like “Aren’t you afraid? Aren’t you embarrassed?” And I was like, no, actually… I love being my authentic self.”

“The only way I could do this job for the city was if I had some way to blow off steam every now and then,” he added.

Asked if he would have been slammed for ‘having sex parties during Covid,’ Varma replied, “Yeah. It would have been a big deal. Yeah. It would have been a real embarrassment.”

Ironically, Varma also wrote a piece for the New York Times in 2022 about the realities of living during the pandemic.

“Like everyone else, health officials and providers like me wish the epidemic would end,” he wrote. “But instead, we must live in a parallel universe in which preventing and managing Covid-19 remains a daily focus when everyone else seems to have moved on.”

What’s been the fall out?

Varma has claimed he has been taken out of context.

The New York Times quoted Varma as saying in a statement that the recordings have been “spliced, diced and taken out of context.”

“I was targeted by an operative for an extremist right-wing organization determined to malign public health officials and take down the public health system in America,” Varma said. “I stand by my efforts to get New Yorkers vaccinated against Covid-19, and I reject dangerous extremist efforts to undermine the public’s confidence in the need for and effectiveness of vaccines.”

Varma also took aim at Crowder.

“This individual has been highly discredited and he has been banned from numerous media outlets for his homophobic slurs and racist rants. 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,” he was quoted as saying by Daily Mail.

A spokesperson from City Hall told the outlet, “Dr Varma is not, nor has he ever been, a member of the current administration. The city’s health department went above and beyond to protect New Yorkers from COVID-19 and continues to protect and keep New Yorkers safe under Mayor Adams leadership.”

But some aren’t satisfied.

New York City Councilman Robert Holden has demanded that the current regime take action against Varma.

“This was the public health expert for the city while it was shut down — he was busy having sex parties,” Holden, a Democrat, said in a statement. “It’s alarming, especially with so many first responders, city workers and everyday New Yorkers losing their jobs.”

With inputs from agencies