Dr Jay Varma's sex parties are a metaphor for public health: Do as I say, not as I do

Public health is a broken field

Late last week, hidden camera footage revealed Dr. Jay Varma, NYC Public Health official bragging that he and his wife, a pediatrician, engaged in drug fueled, sex parties in the summer of 2020— at the height of COVID restrictions. He and up to 10 people gathered in a hotel room naked and took Molly. Varma said that it wasn’t just about penetrative sex, but company. Meanwhile children were shut out of schools, elderly people died alone in hospitals, and Bill DeBlasio— his old boss— shut down outdoor funerals.

Like many, I felt angry when I heard the news. Varma was simultaneously overseeing some of the most draconian restrictions placed in free society, while violating those rules to engage in his sex parties. Varma is a hypocrite of the worst kind. Here I wish to outline several different points that others have not made explicitly, and to build an argument that Jay Varma is not unique, but a symbol of public health.

How was he caught?

Varma appears to be caught on hidden cameras. He was questioned by a woman and discussed his polyamorous lifestyle. Although not explicitly stated, the videos appear as if a woman went on dates with him and secretly recorded the conversation. Varma says that this was all done because a conservative commentator was out to get him. People out to get you will look for skeletons in your closet, but if you admit to being a serial killer you have no one to blame but yourself.

What was Varma’s day job when he was caught?

It turns out— at the time of video release— Varma was working for SIGA technologies. What is this company?

SIGA is a company that makes drugs in case a bioweapon is released. Their main product is tecovirimat.

Here is their signature product, and the evidence for it.

Why does a company that makes a ineffective drug with poor evidence hire a former NYC health official, whose CV shows no understanding of drug development?

It is because public health is a corrupt field. Instead of demanding evidence, they know that lobbying officials is the best way to sell product. COVID vaccines in children were never properly tested in randomized trials— have no randomized evidence they reduce severe disease— and yet were authorized repeatedly. Paxlovid doesn’t work in vaccinated people (EPIC SR) but Biden spent 10 billion plus on it. When it comes to infectious disease public health— corruption, nepotism, lobbying dictate spending and not evidence. So it helps to hire former officials who know where to lobby. Whenever medical decisions are made without evidence, corruption reigns supreme.

Why is Jay Varma not a one off?

Jay Varma is not alone in making recommendations which he himself disobeyed. Gavin Newson was caught at the French Laundry restaurant. Nancy Pelosi got her hair done (against rules). Deb Brix had a thanksgiving with her family. Gretchen Whitmer went to Florida. Varma had sex parties, while poor, struggling NY City children were kept out of school.

Public health officials and government leaders who pushed pandemic restrictions repeatedly flaunted those rules because public health came to mean something sinister during the pandemic.

Pre-pandemic, when I attended Johns Hopkins School of Public Health— we were taught that public health was based on empowerment. When people faced tough situations you provided resources so they could make better choices.

However Fauci and Brix, learning from China, decided Public Health meant you could use the police state— cops in riot gear— to force people to comply with orders that you dreamt up— which had bioplausibility but no actual evidence. You could arrest someone for not wearing a mask. Chain playgrounds. Lock up beaches. Force people to mask outside. Fire someone for not getting a vaccine. You could throw a mother off an airplane because her toddler didn’t wear a worthless cloth mask. (A CDC recommendation/ mandated in head start).

The idea that Public Health could weaponize the police state to ensure compliance is a new and disturbing idea. Varma and many others leaned into that idea. But here is the hypocrisy. They never believed it applied to them.

Of course, Gavin can go to the French Laundry and send his kids to private school. Meanwhile you can’t and your poor kids can do zoom school— because in person is dangerous if your kids got to do it too. Your kids can wear a mask in day care, while their kids can have a private nanny.

Varma is saying: I can have my sex parties because we all tested, but you can’t have your funeral and we can’t have school, and forget testing, the answer is still no because we don’t have enough tests.

Public health became a tool of oppression. This change was led by the left-leaning officials and not the right. Republican governors tended to do better on pandemic policies— in part because of their philosophical distrust of government intrusion. Left leaning politicians were happy to be hypocrites. AOC vacationed in Florida during the pandemic because Florida was the place to be.

Closing thoughts

It is bad that Jay Varma and his wife, a pediatrician, went to sex parties while the AAP forced toddlers to mask and Varma enforced lockdowns and unethical vaccine mandates. But it is much worse that public health officials broadly pushed policies that they themselves did not believe in— policies they felt did not apply to elites like them. Newsom’s kids went to private school, while poor kids in California lost grade levels. And all for a virus that all kids got anyway. A virus that is no big deal for healthy kids— with an IFR less than seasonal influenza. What we did during the pandemic to young and healthy people was mass delusion, and it was led by incompetent, hypocritical public health officials.

Public health failed us. If you think they deserve a second chance you are wrong. The CDC has 40,000 employees, and not a single one publicly opposed masking 2 year olds with cloth mask. None wrote op-eds. All were silent.

If I ran things, I would start by firing some people. And not just those named Varma.