"I did all this deviant, sexual stuff while I was on TV"
The doctor behind New York City’s Covid lockdowns admitted to breaking his own rules to go to drug-fuelled sex parties in an undercover sting.
Dr Jay Varma was caught on camera talking about how he went to underground raves that were “not Covid-friendly” at the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
He was secretly recorded by Mug Club Undercover, an investigative organisation run by right-wing commentator Steven Crowder.
Dr Varma was former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s most senior Covid advisor, appearing in daily public briefings and championing restrictions like school closures and vaccine mandates.
But in the undercover footage, he told a woman off-camera:
“I had to be kind of sneaky about it [sex party]… I was running the entire Covid response for the city.
“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.”
Dr Varma later added: “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.”
Dr Varma left his New York government role in 2021.
When asked by the undercover journalist what the “sex parties were like during Covid”, Dr Varma admitted he never attended “a public type” sex party.
But he and his wife had one with their friends in August 2020.
The couple booked a hotel room and Dr Varma advised attendees to take a Covid test and send him the results.
At the time, New York City was starting its reopening plan but businesses had to limit their capacities and indoor dining was restricted.
Dr Varma said: “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.”
Later in the video, Dr Varma said he went to an underground rave with 200 people in May or June 2021 beneath a bank in New York City where “everybody’s high”.
He said: “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 p****d because this was not Covid-friendly.”
When asked if he felt he would be criticised for “having sex parties during Covid”, Dr Varma admitted:
“Yeah. It would have been a big deal. Yeah. It would have been a real embarrassment.”
New York City had some of the USA’s strictest lockdown measures.
Schools, libraries, parks, shops and restaurants were closed. Millions were sent home to work remotely and children attended school online.
In 2022, Dr Varma blasted current Mayor Eric Adams for not doing enough to contain the spread of the virus as a new variant caused a surge of cases.
In the undercover sting, Dr Varma appeared to take credit for vaccine mandates.
He said: “Well, I had actually been talking to him [de Blasio] about it since even before the vaccines were available.
“I was like, you’re going to have to do it this way and so he came up with this metaphor that we’re going to climb this ladder.
“We’re going to first start voluntarily and then we’re going to be pushing it.
“So the way we do it in public health is we make it very uncomfortable to be unvaccinated. With vaccines it’s like, you can’t get a job, you can’t go to a restaurant, kids can’t go to school.
“It’s like, ‘F*** I’m just going to get vaccinated’.
“You ‘force’ people by making it really uncomfortable.
“The whole idea is like you build barriers so that people are like, ‘F*** this. I’m just going to do it because I’m tired of being harassed’.”
The video also appeared to show the doctor taking credit for other Covid-era measures such as social distancing.
Watch the Full Video
Addressing the undercover video, Dr Varma said:
“Unfortunately, I was targeted by an operative for an extremist right-wing organisation 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.
“Between April 2020 – May 2021, 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.”
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