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 of 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.
Sigoloff contests the findings but believes his military career is likely over, according to his attorney.
Sigoloff was the director of the Raymond Bliss Medical Center at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
He initially got into trouble for giving medical exemptions to soldiers from the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He was also 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.
“This action results from concerns of unprofessional conduct, dissemination of misleading information to patients, and distribution of vaccine exemption letters characterizing vaccines as ‘genetic therapy.’ These issues have had (or could potentially have) adverse effects on patient safety and healthcare delivery,” Carmona wrote.
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 not to get vaccinated.
One witness, an officer, said that 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 that Sigoloff, thinking he was not getting vaccinated, told him that “you are making a wise choice.”
A military nurse said that 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 and/or the CDC,” she added, referring to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. 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.
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 also said the investigator and Carmona were wrong in assuming he could not do a risk assessment of the vaccines with his patients and noted that Carmona does not have a medical license while 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.
The second investigation took on complaints lodged against Sigoloff in the past, examining his conduct as far back as 2018 at Fort Wainwright in 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 that 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 did not wear a mask in his exam room and that he asked patients not to wear masks; that he counseled patients that getting a COVID-19 vaccine would alter their DNA; and told patients that getting a vaccine during pregnancy would have a negative impact 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 says.
Sigoloff, through his lawyer, says the investigation was “grossly inadequate,” in part because the investigator “failed to interview any unbiased witnesses or those with personal and first-hand knowledge of the allegations against” the accused.
Sigoloff and his lawyer, Sean Timmons of Tully Rinckey, believe the doctor is being targeted because he came forward both in a lawsuit against the military over the vaccine mandate and with regards 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 that the treatment of Sigoloff violates the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and Department of Defense rules.
For instance, the whistleblower act “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.
The inspector general’s office told The Epoch Times in an email that it “can neither confirm, deny nor comment on the existence of an investigation or Hotline complaint.”
“So basically the Army is saying that you 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 has not 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 that 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 did not respond to a request for comment. Fort Wainwright could not be reached.
