Jay Varma
physician and epidemiologist
Jay Varma is an American physician and epidemiologist who previously served as senior advisor for public health and COVID-19 to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In that role, Varma helped lead New York City's COVID-19 pandemic response, including diagnostic testing, contact tracing, vaccine mandates and the phased re-opening of businesses. He was the architect of the NYC plans for public schools during the COVID-19 crisis.
Early life and education
Varma graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. Varma completed medical school, internal medicine residency, and chief residency at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.
Career
In 2001, Varma joined the Centers for Disease Control's Epidemic Intelligence Service, working on foodborne diseases. That same year, he led the CDC's study of an E. coli outbreak at an Ohio county fair, determining the bacteria was spread through sawdust in the air of an Exhibition Hall, the first time scientists connected transmission of E. Coli to a contaminated building.
While working for the CDC on infectious disease prevention and control, Varma had postings in Atlanta, Thailand, China, Ethiopia, and New York City.
From 2003 to 2008, Varma directed the CDC's tuberculosis programs and research in Southeast Asia. From 2008 to 2011, he directed the CDC's International Emerging Infections Program in Beijing, China.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q106819381. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2001, 2003, 2008 and 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jay Varma” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.