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   NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York City official who helped coordinate the   
   city’s response to the pandemic was fired from his private-sector job   
   after a recording showed him talking about attending a sex party and other   
   private gatherings when the city was urging people to practice social   
   distancing.   
      
   Dr. Jay Varma was terminated from his position as executive vice president   
   and chief medical officer at SIGA Technologies, the New York-based   
   pharmaceutical company disclosed in a filing Monday with the U.S.   
   Securities and Exchange Commission.   
      
   Varma served as a senior public health adviser to then-Mayor Bill de   
   Blasio from April 2020 to May 2021. He regularly appeared with the   
   Democratic mayor at press briefings discussing the city’s COVID-19   
   response and helped develop programs and strategies to combat the virus,   
   including encouraging people to wear masks in public, get tested regularly   
   and get vaccinated, once vaccines were available.   
      
   A hidden-camera video posted last week by podcaster Steven Crowder shows   
   Varma speaking casually to a woman about attending gatherings even as he   
   served as a face of the city’s pandemic response.   
      
   “I did all this deviant, sexual stuff while I was on TV and people were   
   like, ‘Aren’t you afraid? Aren’t you embarrassed?’” he said at one point   
   in the edited recording. “And I was like, no, I really like being my   
   authentic self.”   
      
   Varma also acknowledged how disastrous his actions would have been to the   
   city’s efforts had they been exposed at the time.   
      
   “It would have been a big deal,” he said at another point in the video.   
   “It would have been a real embarrassment.”   
      
   Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned in 2023 after a   
   yearslong government inquiry revealed he and members of his administration   
   attended parties in government offices in violation of COVID-19 lockdown   
   rules at the time.   
      
   Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom faced criticism for flouting his   
   own pandemic rules when he attended a friend’s birthday party at the   
   swanky French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley in November 2020.   
      
   Varma declined Tuesday to comment on his firing, but acknowledged the   
   authenticity of the video in a statement provided by a spokesperson.   
      
   “I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time,” he   
   wrote, adding that the recordings were from private conversations that had   
   been “secretly recorded, spliced, diced, and taken out of context.”   
      
   Varma didn’t elaborate on the events he referenced in the video, but   
   acknowledged attending at least three private gatherings during his City   
   Hall tenure.   
      
   Varma, in the video, said one party took place in a hotel room in August   
   2020 with about 8 to 10 people, including his wife, who were naked and   
   taking the recreational drug molly, or ecstasy.   
      
   By then, New York’s governor had begun easing restrictions, with indoor   
   gatherings of up to 10 people permitted months earlier. Varma said he   
   still took precautions to make sure he wasn’t caught.   
      
   “I had to be kind of sneaky about it,” he said. “I was running the entire   
   COVID response for the city.”   
      
   He also attended a drug-fueled dance party with roughly 200 people in a   
   space under a Wall Street bank in May or June of 2021, according to the   
   recording. In mid-May, New York state had raised the limit on indoor   
   gatherings to 250 people and by mid-June, it had lifted most pandemic   
   restrictions.   
      
   Varma, who left his City Hall position around that time but continued to   
   serve as a part-time consultant, according to his LinkedIn bio, recalled   
   being worried about being spotted at the party at the time.   
      
   “This was not COVID-friendly,” he said in the video, which appears to have   
   been stitched together from recordings made secretly during a number of   
   different social encounters with an unidentified woman, who is off camera.   
      
   A spokesperson for SIGA Technologies didn’t respond to emails seeking   
   comment.   
      
   Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, declined to wade into the controversy   
   Tuesday during his regular City Hall briefing with reporters. Some local   
   conservatives called for a government inquiry.   
      
   “The hypocrisy is outrageous,” said City Council Member Robert Holden, a   
   Queens Democrat, who applauded Varma's firing. “Millions were impacted by   
   their heavy-handed policies, and the public deserves accountability.”   
      
   Varma in his statement defended his efforts to respond to the pandemic and   
   denounced the video as part of “dangerous extremist efforts to undermine   
   the public’s confidence” in vaccines.   
      
   “Facing the greatest public health crisis in a century, our top priority   
   was to save lives, and every decision made was based on the best available   
   science to keep New Yorkers safe,” he wrote.   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/nyc-covid-adviser-fired-parties-lockdown-   
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