Late last month, Dr. Stephen Skoly’s legal team, New Civil Liberties Alliance, filed a response to the State of Rhode Island’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit he had filed for “arbitrarily and unlawfully” ending his surgical practice and for violating his First Amendment rights.

Background: On October 1, 2021, the Rhode Island Department of Health and then-Director Nicole Alexander Scott, MD, via the authority of Governor Dan McKee, ordered Dr. Stephen Skoly to stop caring for patients, stating that he was an “imminent threat to the health of the public” because he declined to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Skoly has natural immunity against the disease and has sound medical issues that speak against his getting the vaccine. But this did not conform to Governor McKee’s and Dr. Alexander Scott’s rigid, non-scientific vaccine mandate on healthcare workers.  Far worse, in their eyes, Dr. Skoly had been vocal about his refusal.

Important to note here that Dr. Skoly has practiced for 35 years without compromise to the health and safety of his staff and patients.

No matter.  Dr. Skoly was forced to down tools and cancel two thousand, one hundred patient appointments, including hundreds of appointments for ward-of-state patients, at the order of Governor McKee and Dr. Alexander Scott.

No other healthcare workers were forcibly sidelined by Governor McKee and Director Alexander Scott for failing to comply with the vaccine mandate or any other COVID-19 order.  Certainly none of the 854 unvaccinated healthcare workers whom they had knowingly permitted to continue to work without medical exemption in violation of the state’s vaccine mandate (illuminating expose published by Dr. Andrew Bostom in March of 2022).

In fact, McKee and Alexander Scott actually dragged from the sidelines healthcare workers who should have stayed there, stunningly greenlighting in late December, 2021 COVID-positive healthcare workers to work at hospitals and nursing homes (a disturbing development broken exclusively by the Providence Journal’s Kathy Gregg).

No, only Dr. Skoly, with natural immunity and safety measures highly protective of his patients and staff long in place, was such an “imminent threat to the health of the public” that he had to be stopped at all costs from providing healthcare.

In March of 2022, a month after Dr. Skoly and the New Civil Liberties Alliance had filed suit against the State of Rhode Island, Governor McKee and Director Alexander Scott, the Rhode Island Department of Health issued a “Dismissal Stipulation” which, in theory, permitted Dr. Skoly to resume his practice. However, it took them until late September or early October to pull off the RI DOH medical license website the two prejudicial notices, screenshot at right, they had listed against Dr. Skoly’s license.  These had continued to impede Dr. Skoly’s ability to practice, despite the issuance of the Dismissal Stipulation, by making it impossible for insurance companies to cover his patients.

Anchor Rising contacted both Governor McKee and the Rhode Island Department of Health in October about their actions.

Of Governor McKee, via his communications team, we asked:

Attached is a picture of two items pertaining to Dr. Stephen Skoly Jr, DMD, that were on RI DOH’s website as recently as September 24, 2022. One is a Compliance Order dated October 1, 2021 that ordered Dr. Skoly to cease acting as a healthcare provider until he complies with the Rhode Island regulation requiring immunization against COVID-19. The other is a Dismissal Stipulation dated July 22, 2022.  [Editorial note: The Dismissal Stipulation is actually dated March 11, 2022; the July 22 date is presumably the date it was put on RI DOH’s website.]

These items were removed from DOH’s website some time in the past couple of weeks.

> Hundreds of healthcare providers in Rhode Island continued to provide care without complying with the COVID-19 vaccine regulation.  Why did Governor McKee allow the RI DOH to target only one healthcare provider, Dr. Stephen Skoly, for enforcement of this regulation?

> If the October 1, 2021 Compliance Order against Dr. Skoly was valid and necessary for the public health, what caused it to be withdrawn?

> Regarding the Dismissal Stipulation of July 22, 2022 , why did it take four months to promulgate it when the Compliance Order against Dr. Skoly was withdrawn around March 11, 2022?

> If Dr. Skoly’s ability to provide healthcare had been restored, why did it take two additional months to remove both the October 1, 2021 Compliance Order and the July 22, 2022 Dismissal Stipulation from RI DOH’s website?

In a second e-mail to Governor McKee:

… the authority to enforce or not enforce a regulation is vested solely with the governor.  Hundreds of healthcare providers in Rhode Island provided care without complying with Rhode Island’s COVID-19 vaccine regulation. Enforcement action for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine was taken against only one healthcare provider, Dr. Stephen Skoly.

My question for Governor McKee is, why did he permit and authorize this highly targeted enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine regulation?

Governor McKee refused to respond to any of these questions.

Of RI DOH, we asked:

… can you shed some light on why it took DOH months to implement these steps in the matter of Dr. Stephen Skoly?  Specifically:

> Regarding the Dismissal Stipulation of July 22, 2022 [actually dated March 11, 2022], why did it take four months to promulgate it when the Compliance Order against Dr. Skoly was withdrawn around March 11, 2022?

> If Dr. Skoly’s ability to provide healthcare had been restored, why did it take two additional months to remove both the October 1, 2021 Compliance Order and the July 22, 2022 Dismissal Stipulation from RI DOH’s website?

The issue is that the prolonged timeframe by DOH interfered with his ability to provide much-needed care to his patients; particularly at a time when the pool of healthcare providers has been constricted. Can you / DOH explain the reason for the protracted timeframe?

RI DOH responded:

This was an extraordinary circumstance. It pertained to a disciplinary action for a violation of a health regulation that later expired. The dismissal stipulation was issued after a period of review.

On your second question, the compliance order against Dr. Skoly was not withdrawn. It is simply no longer posted on the disciplinary actions section of our website. Compliance orders are not typically taken down until several years have passed. However, the matter was reviewed, and an accommodation was made in this instance, given the extraordinary circumstances. (The extraordinary circumstances being that this was a violation of a health regulation that later expired.)

RI DOH at least offered a response to Anchor Rising’s questions.   However, they did not actually answer the question as to why it took months for them to remove the unwarranted scarlet letters they had affixed, with the authority and approval of Governor McKee, to the license of an innocent healthcare professional that impeded him from offering his vital services to many hundreds of patients.

Governor McKee’s silence on his authorization of this highly selective enforcement against one healthcare professional presumably has to speak for itself.  He has no explanation or defense to offer for the highly targeted actions taken by his DOH under his authority – perhaps because there is none.