Fired city workers demand jobs back after Varma admits to Covid carousing

Following revelations that Dr. Jay Varma, the city’s Covid czar during the de Blasio administration, attended sex parties during the height of the pandemic, members of the City Council called on Mayor Eric Adams to reinstate city workers who were fired for refusing to comply with the Covid-era vaccine mandate.

In edited hidden video footage posted by the conservative news podcast, Louder With Crowder, Varma, who was Mayor Bill de Blasio’s senior health advisor from April 2020 until May 2021, admitted to hosting sex parties with friends and attending a drug-fueled dance party underneath a Wall Street bank during the Covid lockdowns.

The city’s Covid bigwig also allegedly spearheaded the vaccine mandate for city workers, which was in effect from November 2021 until Adams lifted it in February 2023. “I actually was the one who convinced the mayor to make it a mandate,” Varma says in the video. 

He was also heard saying that ”it doesn’t make a difference” whether someone is vaccinated or not because attaining natural immunity is the same as achieving immunity through vaccination. The footage has prompted outrage from fired city workers and the City Council’s Common Sense Caucus, who gathered at the steps at City Hall Monday to demand an investigation into the Covid policies enacted under Varma.

“The Covid czar, he was dictating what we should do while he was doing the opposite. We shut everything down, we lost a lot, and then we find out that a lot of this was made up by Dr. Varma,” Council Member Robert Holden said during the press event. “First responders lost their jobs. They were out there, and what did they get in return later on? They got a pink slip.”

Municipal workers who were fired for not getting the shot or receiving an exemption were required to sign a waiver barring them from suing over back pay or civil-service rights to get their city jobs back. Civil-service rules also state that employees who return to work for the city more than a year after their departure would lose their seniority and be considered rehires. 

Although thousands of workers were terminated or resigned because of the vaccine mandate, as of this past July just 72 have been reinstated, according to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.

Council Member Joann Ariola said that Varma’s Covid policies have caused “irreparable damage.”

“I stand here today, shoulder to shoulder, with our first responders, sanitation workers, teachers and every city worker who was forced to retire, resign or was terminated because of the Covid-19 vaccine mandate,” she said. “The recent findings only prove what we have known all along: that the vaccine mandate and Covid shutdowns were unnecessary.”

The City Council's Common Sense Caucus is calling for an investigation into the administration's vaccine response. Crystal Lewis/The Chief

'An apology isn't enough'

In a Sept. 20 letter to Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and to Council Members Gale Brewer, who chairs the Oversight and Investigations Committee, and Lynn Shulman, the Health Committee chair, members of the Common Sense Caucus called on the Council to probe Varma’s alleged behavior as described in the video, as well as “the role Dr. Varma, Mayor de Blasio, and others may have played in misleading the public.”

“Given the profound impact the pandemic has had on our city, we are disgusted by the blatant hypocrisy and recklessness by a public official entrusted with such an enormous responsibility,” Ariola, Holden and seven other members of the caucus wrote. “It is essential that we uncover what transpired during Dr. Varma’s tenure and address this immense breach of trust that was broken.”

In a statement, Varma said that the recordings were “spliced, diced, and taken out of context,” and he acknowledged that he participated in two private gatherings during the pandemic. “I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time,” he said.

In an interview with The Hill, de Blasio said that he had no knowledge of Varma’s private activities. He called the behavior “disgusting and unacceptable.”

A  City Hall spokesperson said in a statement that “Dr. Varma is not, nor has he ever been, a member of the current administration. The city’s health department went above and beyond to protect New Yorkers from COVID-19 and continues to protect and keep New Yorkers safe under Mayor Adams leadership."

Current and former city workers spoke of the struggles they’ve faced since being forced to leave their jobs. Sophy Medina, a retired firefighter, said that “liars” need to be held publicly accountable. “An apology isn't enough.… You guys took away so much from us,” she said.

Brendan Fogarty, a member of Bravest for Choice and an FDNY captain who left his job because of the mandate but was eventually able to return, said, “I'm not here to judge this Varma guy on what he does on his own time. But [he] made it difficult for us to live in this city.”

City Council Member Kristy Marmorato, who worked in health care for two decades, including during the pandemic, said that she was “appalled by the ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ attitude by Dr. Varma.”

“As a councilwoman, I stand here with the Common Sense caucus to call upon our colleagues in government to ask for them to bring Dr. Varma in for an oversight hearing to hold him accountable and to get the answers that us as New Yorkers deserve,” she said during the press conference.

Call to end city's appeals

Ariola called for the city to immediately lift its appeals of judges’ orders reinstating fired unvaccinated workers.

“We’ve been suing in federal and state court for three years now to get our jobs back,” said Michael Kane, a 14-year educator who was fired over the vaccine mandate and the founder of Teachers for Choice. “Our federal case is stuck in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for 20 months, so God bless the Common Sense caucus for saying ‘End the appeals.’”

Kane was among 10 educators a Staten Island Supreme Court justice ruled last September must be reinstated with back pay and seniority. But because the city has appealed the decision, he has not been allowed back in the classroom.

“Why is the mayor appealing these rulings? We have no clue as to why he’s doing this,” Holden added. “He’s blaming Mayor de Blasio but he’s continuing de Blasio’s policies. There’s no excuse, Mr. Mayor, stop the appeals right now.”

City Hall stated that it will continue to appeal these decisions in order to uphold the city's "authority to implement the vaccine mandate" during a health emergency.

Council Member Vickie Paladino chastised Varma for ignoring his own "draconian rules" and called on the Adams administration “to do what is right.” 

“We have a shortage of teachers — guess what? We've got 1,800 of them that can get back to work. We have a shortage of police — the best of the best — rehire them,” she said.

Kane, the former teacher, called on the mayor and the Council to “get to the bottom” of the revelations that arose in the Varma videos. “The credibility of New York City, and the Health Department of New York City, is on the line,” he said.

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