A New York City senator is demanding express health authorities strip Dr. Jay Varma of his skilled license following a series of bomb statements caught on tape and published by liberal blogger Steven Crowder.
Last weekend, the New York Post reported that Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino sent a letter to the New York Department of Health demanding a disciplinary investigation after the city ’s “Covid czar ” was caught bragging about sex parties under lockdown.
“It’s so funny, ” Varma said on tape, “ … because I did all this like deviant, like sexual stuff while I was … on TV. ”
Varma was a top adviser for then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s pandemic response staff during the lockdowns.
“Dr. Varma’s actions betrayed public trust … which is in direct violation of a medical professional’s responsibility, ” Paladino wrote in a letter on Sept. 26. “It is important that the Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct takes urgent action to prevent further damage. ”
The email was sent only one day after Crowder’s “Mug Club ” podcast published another strip of Varma talking about attempts to “spin” reports for a monkeypox medicine manufactured by his previous boss, SIGA Technologies Inc.
“We want the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, to review our medication specifically for Monkeypox and right then it ’s only considered empirical and they won’t review it based on this research, ” Varma told an undercover writer. “Basically, what we’re trying to get the press to say is, ‘Oh the medicine did n’t function because it was designed the wrong way. But they’re going to do another review and it will likely work. And in the meantime, you know, people may suggest it. ”
“We need to design more research, but we also need to keep up the people’s idea that the [TPOXX] medication works. So, that ’s why spinning it in the media is helpful, ” Varma said.
Dr. Varma conceded on camera that “the risk [for Monkeypox ] is very low ” in the United States, but he wanted to spin the success of his company ’s drug “so that people are — won’t like, dump the stock thinking that the company is worthless. ”
Stock for the pharmaceutical company tanked almost 16 percent on the day Crowder published Varma’s remarks about chikungunya.
“Over the past several days, inaccurate and misleading remarks made by Dr. Jay Varma, as well as doubtful do he engaged in while leading New York City ’s COVID-19 answer, have come to light, ” SIGA Technologies wrote in a statement. “We are deeply angered by his remarks and habits which do not represent SIGA, the way we do business or our beliefs. As a result of his do and lack of judgment, Dr. Varma was terminated from SIGA Technologies on September 19, 2024. He is no longer affiliated with SIGA in any way. ”
At least two New York rules companies have since launched investigations into the business after Dr. Varma’s post surfaced, including Kirby McInerney LLP and Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz.