Talk:Jay Varma

The lede says: In 2024, a controversy arose from the release of a video recording of Varma stating that he was involved in dance and sex parties in 2020 and 2021, with Varma stating that the video statements were "taken out of context". The in 2020 and 2021 implies "during covid restrictions". But he claims in the dailybeast that A simple timeline that plots New York’s COVID-19 rules against my private activities and public statements makes clear that his central claim, that I was a hypocrite who broke COVID gathering rules, is wrong. So the sentence in the lede is misleading.

The body says:

In 2024, undercover investigators working for podcast “Louder with Crowder” released a recording of Varma discussing taking ecstasy and attending sex and dance parties in New York City in August 2020 and the spring of 2021.[45] New York City Councilman Robert Holden has called for an investigation.[46] The Atlantic stated that "It’s not clear whether Varma personally violated any COVID rules."[47] At the time of the parties, Varma was a senior advisor to the mayor and the "architect" responsible for implementing Covid-19 safety rules.[48][49]

Varma did not dispute the authenticity of the video recordings, but claimed his words taken out of context,[10] and said that "between April 2020 - May 2021, I participated in two private gatherings. I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time."[50]

Again, this heavily implies that he broke COVID rules. But he denies that.

The article states that he claimed his words taken out of context, which is only a small part of his reponse, and it is important context to mention who these people are. Are they (far?) right people trying to set him up who are infamous for using selective editing and taking things out of context? He says the claim that he broke COVID restrictions is false, so why is that not mentioned in the article?

He says those were not undercover investigators but that Crowder ... had been replicating tactics pioneered by James O’Keefe and Project Veritas. Perhaps not the most trustworthy source if you like your facts unedited.

I'll start by removing it from the lede, which is supposed to be a summary of the most important information about a topic, and this clearly isn't the most important information about a guy who is pretty old and somewhat important. Polygnotus (talk) 21:16, 13 February 2025 (UTC)

After thinking about it a bit more I moved this section to the talkpage. Its a bad-faith attack, the result of which was edited and misrepresented. That means we can't even know what the real story is unless the unedited video surfaces. If a reliable source has the full story then we could reintroduce a very different version that describes what actually happened. But that should accurately described who did it, why, how, what he said and how he defended himself.

Polygnotus (talk) 00:59, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

I checked the video where Crowder confronts him, because I am nothing if not thorough. Crowder talks over him, demands answers but then interrupts him, talks about gay sex parties, and is generally extremely unlikable. Varma explains that he was trying to impress his date, whose goading was of course cut from the video, says I'm not sure that there's anything that I'm gonna say that you would report accurately. and even tries to explain the situation and the policies, but it is like trying to alphabetize raindrops so he gives up and leaves.

I have to admit, I did like the part where Crowder asks: "de Blasio was here, is he a weenie because he didn't enforce more authoritarian measures or is he a weenie because he didn't stand up to the teachers union who irreparably harmed children?" Polygnotus (talk) 04:41, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

This controversy deserves to be fairly covered in the article. I get that from an encyclopedia's perspective, it doesn't really matter what a podcaster secretly recorded and edited - but it does matter that multiple RS covered it, including his side of the story. Aclfc (talk) 14:47, 17 June 2025 (UTC)

How old is this guy? Polygnotus (talk) 21:19, 13 February 2025 (UTC)

Some use a "K." as a middle name. Does anyone know what that stands for? I hope it matches the nominative determinism-theme. Polygnotus (talk) 22:44, 13 February 2025 (UTC)

The article says:

Varma joined the Board of Directors for SIGA Technologies in November 2022 and began serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer in September 2023. Varma was fired in September 2024 after he admitted participating in “private gatherings” that were prohibited during the height of the pandemic.

which is backed up by NBC News. But weirdly, when you actually check what SIGA has to say on their website it says:

Over the past several days, inaccurate and misleading comments made by Dr. Jay Varma, as well as questionable conduct he engaged in while leading New York City’s COVID-19 response, have come to light. We are deeply angered by his comments and behavior which do not reflect SIGA, the way we do business or our values. As a result of his conduct 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.

His recent comments regarding SIGA and TPOXX represent his personal views and relate to areas of our business for which he was not responsible during his one year as a SIGA employee. TPOXX (tecovirimat) was developed over the course of a decade in coordination with various industry and government partners. Supported by robust clinical data, TPOXX was approved in the U.S. in 2018 for the treatment of smallpox. Based on studies completed to date, we strongly believe in the effectiveness of TPOXX as a treatment for orthopoxviruses, including mpox. As announced in a press release on August 15, 2024, while the PALM 007 clinical trial did not meet its primary endpoint, results did show that tecovirimat is safe and may benefit patients with severe disease and those who seek treatment early.

So the reasons given for his firing are his conduct and lack of judgment & inaccurate and misleading comments about SIGA and TPOXX?

https://investor.siga.com/investors/news/news-details/2024/SIGA-Statement-Regarding-Comments-Made-by-Former-Employee-Dr.-Jay-Varma/default.aspx

The worst of sources explains: Two New York City-based law firms launched probes this week into SIGA Technologies, on behalf of its investors, after the pharmaceutical firm’s former chief medical officer and executive president, Dr. Jay Varma, was caught making the comments on a hidden camera. Varma, who served as a senior health adviser to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, seemingly admitted to using the media to “spin stories” to salvage SIGA’s monkeypox drug TPOXX and to preserve the company’s stock price, according to Levi & Korsinsky, one of the law firm’s investigating. Highly edited clips of the secret recording between Varma and a so-called undercover operative were released Wednesday as part of conservative podcaster Steven Crowder’s series “Mug Club.”

I don't think that many companies are so principled that they fire people for potentially breaking covid restrictions during their spare time at an orgy. But I do think companies fire people for saying their product sucks.

Interesting. Polygnotus (talk) 01:15, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

Doctor Jay Varma admitted on video that he attended drug fueled sex parties during the Covid pandemic whilst holding other people to a different standard than he was keeping personally although he was involved in an open relationship at that time the fact is he told other people to follow different standards than he was following himself i am adding this topic to his wikipedia page because up until now there was nothing whatsoever mentioned about it on his Wikipedia page IntheJohn1968 (talk) 16:13, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

No, he didn't. And I do not recommend adding a WP:BLP violation to the page. Polygnotus (talk) 16:15, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

Aside from "drug-fueled," he has admitted it:

Last week, Varma admitted to attending the parties after being caught on hidden camera video talking about it. They took place at a time when Varma was telling New Yorkers to stay away from others to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Last week, Varma admitted he ignored the same COVID-19 policies he insisted New Yorkers follow during the pandemic.

Varma admitted he and his wife held two sex parties in a hotel with friends in August and November of 2020, and participated in a dance party with roughly 200 people in June, 2021 after he had left his position with the city and was working as a consultant.

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/dr-jay-varma-sex-parties-during-covid-pandemic/

Therefore, the most recent reversion should be restored and the above information incorporated into the article.Mikalra (talk) 21:06, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

See the sections above, this has been debunked already. Polygnotus (talk) 00:27, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

Debunked where? Do you mean in the SIGA section? That doesn't seem to refute anything. Varma is directly on the record in the CBS piece. Mikalra (talk) 00:35, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

Here and there. And in the SIGA section. Also in various newssources. That someone who used to works for Fox News has opinions about COVID is perhaps no surprise. Polygnotus (talk) 00:36, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

In your cited sources, he confirms all of the events; the thing he disputes in the Daily Beast piece is the timeline and therefore whether he was in contemporaneous violation of official guidance. The solution seems to be to lay out the self-confirmed facts and explain that he denies being in violation of guidance at the time of the events, citing the DB essay. Agreed? Mikalra (talk) 01:12, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

No, because we got multiple versions of the story.

We got a version from a very unreliable source (Crowder's attempt at doing a Project Veritas set-up) that is deceptively edited where they tried to get him to say stuff using a variety of tactics including female charm.

We got his later statements which are, relatively speaking, more reliable where he denies any wrongdoing and explains how his marriage works.

On Wikipedia in BLPs we ignore unreliable sources because of legal issues, WP:HARM, and most importantly the fact that we want to make an encyclopedia and not a tabloid. For more information see WP:BLP, for example WP:BLPGOSSIP. While sex parties are a lot of fun, drug-fueled or not, they are not encyclopedically relevant. Polygnotus (talk) 01:20, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

Sure: I appreciate that Crowder's original story was edited to make things look worse than they were. That's why we ought to lay out the self-confirmed facts and explain that he denies being in violation of guidance at the time of the events, citing the DB essay. Agreed? Mikalra (talk) 03:04, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

No, we mention only encyclopedically relevant stuff in a dispassionate tone. BLPs should be boring. That is the goal. We do not write the news. For example an affair may be a news story, but it generally not relevant for an encyclopedia. Leave the bullshit to the tabloids; that is their game and they are better at it than we can ever be. We don't play their game. Polygnotus (talk) 03:10, 3 April 2025 (UTC)