Ex-NYC COVID Adviser Fired After Video Exposes Pandemic Party Attendance

Allegations of Hypocrisy and Misconduct

Dr. Jay Var­ma, who pre­vi­ous­ly served as a senior pub­lic health advis­er to for­mer New York City May­or Bill de Bla­sio, has been ter­mi­nat­ed from his posi­tion at SIGA Technologies.

This comes after a hid­den-cam­era video sur­faced, show­ing Var­ma acknowl­edg­ing that he attend­ed pri­vate gath­er­ings, includ­ing those involv­ing drug use, while pub­licly advo­cat­ing for COVID-19 safe­ty measures.

Varma’s Admission and Acknowledgment

In the video, Var­ma is shown speak­ing casu­al­ly about attend­ing var­i­ous par­ties and events, even as he was the pub­lic face of the city’s pan­dem­ic response.

He acknowl­edged that his actions, if exposed at the time, would have been “a big deal” and “a real embar­rass­ment” to the city’s efforts.

Comparisons to Other Political Scandals

Var­ma’s case bears sim­i­lar­i­ties to scan­dals that have plagued oth­er polit­i­cal fig­ures, such as the res­ig­na­tion of for­mer British Prime Min­is­ter Boris John­son and the crit­i­cism faced by Cal­i­for­nia Gov­er­nor Gavin New­som for flout­ing their own pan­dem­ic-relat­ed rules.

The Fallout and Consequences

Var­ma’s ter­mi­na­tion from SIGA Tech­nolo­gies rep­re­sents the pro­fes­sion­al con­se­quences of his actions. In his state­ment, he took respon­si­bil­i­ty for his “lack of judg­ment” and acknowl­edged the authen­tic­i­ty of the video, which he claimed had been “secret­ly record­ed, spliced, and tak­en out of context.”