A U.S. military doctor has been reprimanded and could be discharged because of his opposition to the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
U.S. Army Maj. Samuel Sigoloff, a doctor, was ordered to stop seeing patients because of concerns that he was disseminating misleading information about the COVID-19 vaccines, according to documents reviewed by The Epoch Times.
Sigoloff was later found to have referred to COVID-19 as the Wuhan COVID-19 virus and to have counseled patients against COVID-19 vaccination.
The Beginning
Sigoloff, who was the director of the Raymond Bliss Medical Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, initially got into trouble for giving medical exemptions to soldiers from the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He also was criticized for prescribing ivermectin, an antiparasitic medicine, as a way to prevent contracting the virus that causes COVID-19.On Sept. 13, 2021, Lt. Col. Marie Carmona issued a memorandum suspending Sigoloff’s clinical privileges, according to a copy of the memo reviewed by The Epoch Times.
Counseling
Sigoloff was counseled by Carmona on Sept. 16, 2021, after several Army personnel alerted superiors that they overheard Sigoloff at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic telling people to not get vaccinated.One witness, an officer, said Sigoloff told him at the clinic that he was “absolutely not going to get the vaccine under any circumstance whatsoever” and that “no one in here should, either.”
Another officer said Sigoloff, thinking he wasn’t getting vaccinated, told him that he was “making a wise choice.”
A military nurse said Sigoloff came into her office and was discussing issues with the COVID-19 vaccines, such as gene mutation, and she thought he was initially joking, so she said in jest, “Did he get his research from QAnon?” After he kept talking, she alerted others, saying she thought “his extreme beliefs are scary” and that his beliefs “could be dangerous to our patients.”
“You are hereby ordered to stop discussing vaccine or virus,” Carmona wrote. “You are promoting misinformation and not abiding by the guidance of the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] and/or the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention].”
Sigoloff challenged Carmona’s language.
“I did not tell people to not get it. I encouraged them to do what they want as they retain autonomy,” he wrote.
Reprimand
Sigoloff was reprimanded on Jan. 10, with Brig. Gen. Shan Bagby describing Sigoloff’s actions as “service discrediting.”“Your decision to encourage others to disobey a lawful order from your superior commissioned officer to vaccinate against COVID-19 fell significantly below the standards of good order and discipline expected of Soldiers in the U.S. Army and demonstrates a total disregard for your safety and the safety of others. Your lack of discipline causes me to question your potential in the U.S. Army,” Bagby wrote in a memo.
Two different investigations concluded that Sigoloff committed misconduct, including one launched shortly after Carmona’s initial action.
Sigoloff vigorously contested the findings of the first probe, noting that it cited the CDC and pro-CDC organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatricians, as its sources.
“When has one source been right 100% of the time? The [investigator] does not use other more agile information sources like VAERS reports, ongoing trials in Israel, case reports with very concerning adverse reaction, and interviews/articles of experts in their respective fields,” he wrote in his response, referring to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which enables people to report post-vaccination adverse events.
He said the investigator and Carmona were wrong in assuming he couldn’t do a risk assessment of the vaccines with his patients and noted that Carmona doesn’t have a medical license, while also pointing out that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate allowed for both religious and medical exemptions.
And Sigoloff cited the FDA’s definition of gene therapy in arguing that the vaccines can be defined as gene therapies.
Issues With Prescriptions
The second investigation took on complaints lodged against Sigoloff in the past, examining his conduct as far back as 2018 at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, where Sigoloff was stationed until 2021.The investigator said he found that Sigoloff diverged from standards in prescribing anti-depressants and medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, widely known as ADHD.
The investigator also said Sigoloff’s labeling of COVID-19 as the “Wuhan COVID-19 virus”—the virus is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China—“demonstrates potential xenophobia.”
The probe also determined that Sigoloff consistently didn’t wear a mask in his exam room and that he asked patients to not wear masks, that he counseled patients that getting a COVID-19 vaccine would alter their DNA, and that he told patients that getting a vaccine during pregnancy would have a negative effect on their unborn babies.
The investigator recommended “professional retraining” and consultation to figure out whether the doctor “is fit to continue practicing medicine.”
“In addition to this, I would recommend consultation with psychology to evaluate if there is a reason for his noted odd behavior by peers and demonstrated rigid adherence to medical beliefs which are not evidence-based and not sustained by medical professional bodies (CDC, AAP, AAFP),” the report reads.
Whistleblower
Sigoloff and his lawyer, Sean Timmons of Tully Rinckey, believe that the doctor is being targeted because he came forward both in a lawsuit against the military over the vaccine mandate and with regard to a spike in adverse incidents being reported in a military medical database.In a recent letter to the Department of Defense inspector general, Timmons said the treatment of Sigoloff violates the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and Department of Defense rules.
The whistleblower law “prohibits any person from taking, withholding, or threatening any personnel action against a member of the armed forces as reprisal for making or preparing any protected communications.”
“We respectfully request that an investigation be immediately conducted into the incidents described herein, that appropriate action be taken in order to deter this abhorrent behavior in the future, and that all responsible parties be held fully accountable for their actions,” Timmons wrote.
‘Good Faith’
“So, basically, the Army is saying that [Sigoloff] undermined the vaccine program by liberally granting medical exemptions, but he believes in good faith based on his medical opinion and research, that some individuals have adverse side effects to the vaccine and therefore, based on their existing comorbidity and difficulties, that exception medically was appropriate under the circumstances,” Timmons told The Epoch Times.Sigoloff, who hasn’t received the COVID-19 vaccine himself, now faces dismissal from the military.
“His military career’s probably over because he wouldn’t toe the company line,” Timmons said.
He said the findings by the investigators and in the other memos are slanderous, defamatory, and lack merit.
“They’re trying to send a message that anybody cooperating as a whistleblower is going to be punished and have their career burned,” Timmons said.
The Raymond Bliss Medical Center didn’t respond to a request for comment; Fort Wainwright couldn’t be reached.
