Covid Czar Scandal Is Reminder of Boundless Idiocy and Hypocrisy of the Covid Regime

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James Bovard
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Remember when government officials sanctioned orgies but insisted it was too risky to permit children to attend classes to learn how to read?

During the pandemic, New York City Covid Czar Jay Varma championed endless government restrictions and lockdowns to keep people safe. But, at the same time, he attended sex parties and a dance party, indulgences that made a mockery of everything he preached to New Yorkers. 

His hypocrisy was exposed this week by undercover recordings made by conservative podcaster Steven Crowder. Varma declared on Thursday: “I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time.”

That statement is a great consolation to everyone whose rights and liberties were nullified during the pandemic. In the undercover recordings, Varma bragged about brutalizing people into submission:

• “I’m gonna make it really fu*king hard to be unvaccinated.”
• “I actually was the one who convinced the Mayor to make it a mandate[vaccine].”
• “You can’t get a job, you can’t go to a restaurant, your kids can’t go to school...it’s like fu*k it, I’m just going to get vaccinated.”

Varma’s takedown should spur a re-examination of how idiotic and oppressive governments became during the pandemic. Politicians and petty czars canceled Thanksgivings and other holidays across the nation. In lieu of family gatherings, they offered endless idiotic advice for “safe sex” during Covid.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo denounced anyone who disobeyed his edicts, including condemning sheriffs as “dictators” for refusing to enforce his mask mandate inside people’s homes. But other officials in New York give their blessings to behavior which was reckless even by “woke” standards. The New York City Health Department recommended that people who organize orgies, “If you do attend (sex orgies), follow COVID-19 precautions. ” The guidance hinted that nothing was better than a rooftop: “Pick larger, more open, and well-ventilated spaces.”

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, New York City’s deputy health commissioner, boasted, “Our health department has a really strong record of being very sex positive.” At the same time that New York cops violently assaulted people for not wearing face masks, the city government officially sanctioned “glory holes.” The Big Apple’s health department urged people to “be creative with… physical barriers, like walls, that allow sexual contact while preventing close face-to-face contact.” That salacious advice was not included in Gov. Cuomo’s self-tribute bestseller, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Instead of meeting sex partners online, city Health Department recommended, “Video dates, sexting, subscription-based fan platforms, sexy ‘Zoom parties’ or chat rooms may be options for you.” So maybe invite Jeffrey Toobin to your Zoom party? (Toobin was fired after masturbating during a New Yorker Zoom call.) Many of the “chat rooms” that bureaucrats recommended were stocked with jailbait, police and FBI agents masquerading and looking to entrap people for underage sex or other offenses. Maybe someone should ask Jeff Bezos about the alleged emailed pictures of his anatomy?

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf decreed on November 17, 2020 that people must wear masks in their own homes whenever someone visits who does not live in that household. But horizontal rules were laxer. The Pennsylvania Department of Health issued a “Safer Sex and COVID-19” guide with suggestions for “if you attend a large gathering where you might end up having sex.” “Might end up having sex” sounded akin to an act of God beyond the control of anyone in the vicinity.

Pennsylvania bureaucrats suggested that orgy attendees “limit the number of partners” and “try to identify a consistent sex partner.” Consistently what? The Philadelphia Board of Health urged prostitutes to “shower thoroughly after each client and change clothes” and wash hands “with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.” But small business owners were not allowed to keep their stores open no matter how long they washed their hands. 

Wacky Covid sex advice cascaded out of other bureaucracies, including the San Francisco Department of Health, which recommended people limit themselves to “sex with a small, stable group of partners outdoors.” Did the local officials expect such displays would boost the tourist business? Perhaps given the likelihood of deranged spectators on Market Street, San Francisco bureaucrats stressed, “Quicker can be better.”

The Vermont Department of Health captured the ethos of many health departments across the nation: “Decisions about sex and sexuality need to be balanced with personal and public health.” Covid superstar Anthony Fauci reflected that judgment when he declared that those who meet strangers for sex via Tinder or other dating apps are entitled to make their “choice regarding a risk.” But Fauci was happy to help ravage people’s lives to force them to get injected: “It’s been proven that when you make it difficult for people in their lives, they lose their ideological bullshit, and they get vaccinated.”

But neither Fauci, Varma, nor any other official ever explained why the standards for permitted sexual contacts were far looser than the edicts for businesses, schools, or religious gatherings. A “copulation exemption” to the de facto Covid cancellation of the Bill of Rights made no sense. There was no reason to treat carnal relations as legally superior to capitalist acts between consenting adults, attending worship services, or sending kids to school. The latest Covid scandal is a reminder that when politicians are permitted to selectively nullify freedom, the injustices will be exceeded only by the absurdities.