Army Doctor Says He’s Being ‘Persecuted’ for Giving Exemptions to COVID-19 Vaccine

U.S. Army Maj. Samuel Sigoloff in an undated picture. (Courtesy of Samuel Sigoloff)

A U.S. military doctor is alleging that the U.S. Army has taken a series of retaliatory actions against him in response to him granting medical waivers to the COVID-19 vaccine for some service members.

Maj. Samuel Sigoloff, former director of the Raymond W. Bliss Army Health Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, has been ordered to stop seeing patients, assigned to do menial duties, given a relief for cause officer evaluation report, and risks having his license to practice medicine revoked.

Sigoloff’s attorney described the Army’s actions as “retribution” for the doctor practicing medicine in a way inconsistent with the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine policies.

Medical Exemptions

Not long after Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s August 2021 COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Sigoloff began seeing a number of patients who needed “legitimate medical exemptions” from the vaccine, he told The Epoch Times.

But within weeks of the vaccine mandate, Sigoloff was suspended by the clinic commander, a registered nurse, at the Raymond Bliss Health Center for providing these medical exemptions, he said. All the medical exemptions he provided for service members were invalidated by this registered nurse.

According to Sigoloff, each of these patients received appropriate medical evaluations, and by his estimation, it would have been more risky or harmful to administer the vaccine to these service members than it would have been for them to be unvaccinated.

“This goes outside a nurse’s authority, practicing medicine without a license,” Sigoloff said.

He went on to note that she isn’t a doctor but more like “the CEO” of the hospital.

“Individual medical decisions are made by the patient and licensed medical provider that are in the room together, not by a registered nurse,” Sigoloff said.

Attorney Sean Timmons, who’s representing Sigoloff, agreed, pointing out that “he’s the one with the professional license on the line.”

In a memo dated Sept. 16, 2021, and viewed by The Epoch Times, the clinic’s commander stated that, until further notice, the sole authority to approve temporary medical exemptions resided with the commander.

“This memo is a declaration that she is practicing medicine without a license,” Sigoloff said.

The commander also banned him from prescribing Ivermectin. A peer-reviewed study recently found that regular use of Ivermectin reduced the risk of dying from COVID-19 by 92 percent. He said receiving punishment for prescribing a controversial, yet effective treatment was also “outside of her authority.”

“As a nurse, she is not allowed to practice medicine, but here she is basically giving orders to physicians like Major Sigoloff to practice medicine in a certain way,” Timmons said. “That’s like my paralegal telling me how to practice law.”

While he welcomes a paralegal’s help on certain matters of the law, “at the end of the day, I’m the one signing the pleadings and the one filing stuff in courts.”

‘Persecuted’

For pointing these issues out to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division in November 2021, Sigoloff said he subsequently received negative counseling and had to write an essay about Article 94 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

“This pertains to mutiny and sedition and comes with a max penalty of death,” he said. “All this for reporting a crime.”

Timmons said, “This was nothing more than a message to Sigoloff to cut it out or get destroyed.”

Sigoloff hasn’t seen a patient in more than a year and has been subjected to performing only menial tasks at the clinic.

“I moved here in July 2021 to be the medical director,” he said. “And now I’m being attacked from all sides, persecuted for doing the job I was selected over peers to do.”

Timmons said, “The military has decided to start engaging in impermissible, unlawful, and despicable reprisal toward Sigoloff, questioning his suitability as a physician.”

The attorney alleged that a “sham peer review” by two other physicians looking into Sigoloff’s past practices and previous assignments is currently underway.

“What they’re doing to him is retribution for practicing medicine in a way contrary to their plan,” Timmons said. “The Army is using every mechanism available to harass him.”

Sigoloff said he’s also currently being investigated for allegedly threatening the secretary of defense after he shared a Twitter post of an image of Austin behind a syringe with concentric circles, labeling him as an “Oath Breaker” with a reference to Oath Keepers.

While he denies the allegation that the circles are indicative of a target or any association with the Oath Keepers group, he began getting escorted from the clinic in September, and now must report to the garrison command building. The major isn’t allowed into the clinic unless escorted, even if he requires personal health care.

Sigoloff is set to have a Quality Assurance appeal at Fort Bliss, Texas, concerning his medical credentials in early October. He has never been stationed at Fort Bliss, and he can’t find any regulation that would require or allow the change of venue, he said.

The commander at the new venue wants to completely revoke his ability to practice medicine in the Army, whereas his current duty station only wanted to reduce his practice privileges. Revocation of his privilege to practice would be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, which would generate a report to the Texas Medical Board and possibly affect his ability to practice medicine as a private citizen. 

Eight members of Congress in August sent a letter to Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth to request an expedited review and approval of Sigoloff’s request for honorable separation from the Army. The letter states that he has been “the target of retaliation and possibly illegal acts taken by his chain of command.”

In response to an inquiry from The Epoch Times, a public affairs officer at the Raymond W. Bliss Army Health Center said, “At this time, we are unable to comment on Maj. Sigoloff’s allegations due to an ongoing investigation.”

Sigoloff emphasized that his views don’t reflect those of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Army.

Department of Defense and Department of the Army officials didn’t return requests for comment from The Epoch Times.