NYC Indian American Covid czar brags about sex parties during pandemic

Dr. Jay Varma says ‘had to be sneaky; claims he was ‘targeted’ in hidden video

New York City’s former Indian American Covid czar was caught on a hidden camera boasting about having drug-fueled sex parties mid-pandemic — and admitting New Yorkers would have been “pissed” if they had found out at the time, according to media reports.

Dr. Jay Varma, who served as senior health adviser to then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and was tasked with running the Big Apple’s pandemic response, made the confession in secretly recorded conversations with a so-called undercover operative from conservative podcaster Steven Crowder’s “Mug Club.”

“I had to be kind of sneaky about it … because I was running the entire Covid response in the city,” Varma was filmed telling the unidentified woman on Aug 1 in what appears to be a restaurant, the New York Post reported.

The edited clips of the hidden camera footage, which were all recorded between July 27 and Aug 14 in New York, were released by Crowder on Thursday.

The Post said it has not reviewed the full, unedited recordings. The identity of the woman Varma was speaking to — or where he met up with her — wasn’t clear, it said. The nature of their relationship also wasn’t clear.

Varma, who no longer works for City Hall, admitted to The Post that he “participated in two private gatherings” between April 2020 and May 2021 — but insisted the secretly recorded conversations had been “taken out of context.”

In one clip recorded on Aug 14, Varma was filmed acknowledging it would have been a “real embarrassment” for the city if he had been busted at the non-socially distanced parties — despite saying there were no gathering restrictions at the time.

“We went to some, like, underground dance party … underneath a bank on Wall Street … We were all rolling, we’re all taking molly [MDMA] and everybody’s high. And I was so happy because I hadn’t done that in like a year and a half,” he said in the clip.

READ: Several Indian Americans charged in $53 million Covid relief fraud (July 7, 2023)

In the video, Varma also bragged about helping to put in place mandatory vaccination rules that prevented Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving from playing basketball after he refused to get the shot, according to CBS.

A spokesman for Varma told CBS News New York that while he held the city post, he and his wife held two sex parties in a hotel with friends – one in August 2020, the other in November 2020.

The spokesman also said his client participated in a dance party with about 200 people underneath a Wall Street bank in June 2021. At that time, he had left full-time city service and was working as a consultant.

In a statement, Varma said, “Unfortunately, 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. 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. I served in City Hall between April 2020 – May 2021. During that time, I participated in two private gatherings. I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time.

“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. 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.”

When asked by the ABC 7about the video, Varma admitted he attended two gatherings from August 2020 and May 2021, and claimed the recordings had been secretly filmed and had been “spliced, diced and taken out of context.”

Meanwhile, New York City Council Member Robert Holden asked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Interim Commissioner Thomas Donlon to investigate the allegations.

In a Thursday letter, Holden asked for a probe into the allegations, calling for Varma to be held to the “same legal standards as every other resident of this City.”

“The guy has no shame. It is disgusting,” he said. “This is a very serious thing that’s going on and that was going on, and that’s why– what else did he do? What else did he say? What else should we have done?”

Holden also wants a full-scale City Council investigation where Varma is called to testify.