Former New York COVID Commissioner Jay Varma fired after sex party scandal

The city's former COVID commissioner was fired from his job at a pharmaceutical company on Monday, a week after he was caught bragging about hosting sex parties and attending an underground rave party at the height of the pandemic.

Dr. Jay Varma was serving as chief health adviser to then-Mayor Bill de Blasio during the COVID-19 pandemic when he and his wife went on a sex- and drug-fueled binge and attended a packed rave party on Wall Street, according to secretly recorded conversations the doctor had with a woman.

“On September 23, 2024, the Board of Directors of SIGA Technologies (NASDAQ: SIGA) terminated Dr. Jay Varma from his position as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of the Company, effective immediately and without cause,” the company wrote in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“In accordance with the terms of his employment agreement, Dr. Varma's service on the Board of Directors of the Company also automatically terminated with immediate effect,” said the notice, which is required when an event occurs that is deemed to affect the shareholders of a publicly traded company.

Varma critic and City Councilman Bob Holden said in a scathing statement: “Dr. Jay Varma's firing is a step in the right direction, but the consequences for his actions are long overdue.”

“Varma bragged about harassing people into submitting to vaccine requirements and admitted to attending illegal sex parties while he, former Health Commissioner Dr. David Chokshi and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio imposed draconian measures that shut down the entire city,” the Queens Democrat said.

“The hypocrisy is outrageous.”

Varma's shady chats – in which he boasted, among other things, “I did all this kinky, like sexual stuff” and “I had to be a little sneaky about it … because I was leading the whole COVID response in the city” – were made public last week by conservative podcaster Steven Crowder.

His firing came as angry city business owners and parents joined lawmakers on the steps of City Hall on Monday to protest against the lecherous doctor, accusing him of handling crowds in close quarters while they – under his direction – wore masks, kept their children at home and took other precautions against the deadly COVID virus.

“While grandmothers took their last breath alone in cold hospital beds, Dr. Varma fulfilled his sick fantasies with hundreds of sweaty strangers,” raged City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn).

Michael Kane of Teachers for Choice said, “What disgusts me most is hearing Varma say he has to participate in drug-induced group sex orgies to be his 'authentic self' because COVID has 'botched' him.”

Varma said at one point on the tape: “My wife and I had a party with our friends in August [2020] to that first summer.”

“So we rented a hotel… we took all, like, you know, Molly [MDMA] and there were eight or nine, eight or ten of us in a room and everyone was having a blast because everyone was so tense.”

Speaking about the June 2021 rave party, which was attended by hundreds of partygoers, he said: “People said, 'Aren't you scared? Aren't you embarrassed?' and I said, 'No, actually that's how I am: I love being my authentic self.'”

He also hosted another sex party in November 2020, a source close to his camp told the Washington Post on Monday.

Philip Hickey, the former owner of GlenPatrick's Pub in Maspeth, Queens, who attended Monday's rally, said “thousands of lives and businesses,” including his own, have been destroyed by the pandemic and related lockdowns.

Mother Yiantin Chu said she watched her nine-year-old son languish at home for more than three months, trying to navigate the Ministry of Education's distance learning systems.

“The COVID measures that were only supposed to be in place for '2 weeks' in spring 2020 have turned the lives of over a million students and their families in NYC upside down,” Chu said.

The Varma source said the doctor “technically did not violate the order.”

“It was taken out of context, claiming he had broken rules, which was not the case,” the source said.

Varma himself said in a statement: “In these private conversations, which were secretly recorded, edited, scrambled and taken out of context, I referred to events that took place four years ago. Between April 2020 and May 2021, I attended two private meetings. I take responsibility for not exercising my best judgement at the time.”

The edited clips of Varma were filmed with a hidden camera and recorded in New York between July 27 and August 14. The Post has not reviewed the full, unedited footage.

Siga did not respond to The Post's request for comment on Monday.