The former New York City official in charge of the COVID-19 pandemic response has admitted to attending sex and dance parties during the height of the pandemic, despite telling others to social distance.
A video posted Thursday by conservative podcaster Steven Crowder shows Jay K. Varma, who was City Hall’s senior health adviser under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio until May 2021, talking about a sex party he and his wife held and a 200-person dance party in an underground space on Wall Street, The New York Times reported.
The video, which is edited, appears to show Varma speaking while at restaurants.
“We went to some, like underground, like dance party, like underneath a bank in Wall Street. And we were all rolling. We were all taking molly and everybody’s high and I was so happy because I hadn’t done that in a … year or whatever,” he said in the video. “But I was looking around like f‑‑‑, I wonder if anybody sees me, they’re gonna be pissed because this was not COVID-friendly.”
In a statement to the Times, Varma did not dispute the recordings’ authenticity but said they had been “spliced, diced and taken out of context.” He told the outlet he attended three gatherings between August 2020 and June 2021.
“I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time,” Varma said in his statement.
Health officials around the world and in the densely populated city of New York were trying to contain the virus by limiting exposure between people. Wearing a mask, for example, was mandatory indoors at that time.
Varma was part of crafting the city’s vaccine policies and would regularly attend events with the mayor. He urged people to wear a mask and observe social distancing rules.
City Council member Robert Holden, a Democrat who represents Queens, is calling on Mayor Eric Adams to investigate Varma and said the video is “alarming.”
“It’s the height of hypocrisy to tell everyone to put their lives on hold while enjoying his own,” Holden wrote on the social platform X.