Oral surgeon Stephen Skoly, blackballed by Rhode Island

Bring a gun to a knife fight: Because officials in the state of Rhode Island continue to blacklist oral surgeon Stephen Skoly because of his refusal to get any COVID shots for health reasons, his lawyers have now filed an amended lawsuit, noting that Rhode Island’s shot mandates are now recognized as “irrational” by the CDC itself and should cease immediately.

This is a follow-up of an earlier blacklist story. In August 2021 Skoly had been forced to shut down his dental practice — serving 800 patients monthly — because the state had imposed a mandate requiring him to get COVID shots, even though he had already gotten COVID and had natural immunity, had serious health issues that made getting the shots unwise, and was willing to protect his patients with a high level face shield.

In February 2022 Skoly sued, and then expanded his suit in May 2022 when the state refused to grant him unemployment insurance for the time period his practice had been shuttered.

Skoly’s lawyers, from the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), have now amended the lawsuit again, noting that the CDC now recognizes that natural immunity gives as good if not better immunity than the COVID shots. And yet, Rhode Island is still demanding healthcare workers get the jab. From amended complaint [pdf]:

Rhode Island’s order, updated in June, adds a new, not-publicly-discussed section to an existing temporary emergency regulation issued by the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) in 2021. The new rule requires all Medicare and Medicaid certified providers, suppliers, and healthcare workers to get the Covid-19 vaccine. The mandate discriminates between different types of unvaccinated healthcare workers. The preferred unvaccinated (those with accepted medical exemptions) are allowed to wear N95 masks and work, while the unpreferred unvaccinated (those with a not accepted medical condition, or natural immunity, or a religious belief) are compelled to suffer loss of livelihood despite being willing to be N95 masked.

The suit has also been expanded to demand the state stop falsely identifying Skoly “as a practitioner who has been subject to professional discipline” on its website.

Insurance carriers have visited the website and informed Dr. Skoly that the adverse information listed there requires that they not reimburse him for services he has performed. The false listing that he is a disciplined practitioner also raises the possibility of his being delisted by insurers as a practitioner permitted to be reimbursed by insurance.

The lawsuit asks for compensatory damages for this false claim, both for the loss of reimbursements as well as the lost business.

The lawsuit had originally named the state of Rhode Island as well as the specific individuals involved, Democrat governor Daniel McKee, the former health department head James McDonald, and labor head Matthew Weldon. The amended complaint now also names another former health department head Nicole Alexander-Scott, as well as the current health department head, Utpala Bandy.

All these individuals have apparently shown direct animus towards Skoly. According to the complaint, Skoly was expressly told that McKee, Alexander-Scott and McDonald wanted him punished for having ‘opened his big mouth’ by speaking to the press.” Bandy continued this animus by falsely listing Skoly as having been professionally disciplined. And Weldon as head of the labor department was the one who denied Skoly insurance compensation illegally.

The illogic of all of the actions by Rhode Island and its government officials likely means Skoly will win in court. Unfortunately, it is unlikely the damages will come directly from these officials, since government officials in the past few decades have teamed up with the courts to make themselves immune from any punishment for the evil deeds they do. Instead, the taxpayer pays, and the officials walk off scot free, often not even losing their jobs.

Moreover, even in victory Skoly’s dental practice, his employees, and his patients have been damaged in ways that no later financial award can fix. For months he couldn’t work, his employees were unpaid, and his patients could not get treatment. And they were all denied these fundamental rights because government officials in Rhode Island either panicked over the Wuhan flu, or decided it was a great crisis for increasing their power.