Gov. Henry McMaster nominated Beaufort’s Simmer to lead newly created health department after years of running DHEC
By Skylar Laird
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — The governor’s pick to lead South Carolina’s public health agency told senators Thursday that people have threatened him while making “outrageously false allegations” about his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gov. Henry McMaster nominated Dr. Edward Simmer, the previous head of the Department of Health and Environmental Control, to run the state’s newly created Department of Public Health. Simmer ran DHEC for three years before legislators split the agency into separate departments.
Since being nominated as head of the 2,000-person health agency, which he leads on an interim basis, Simmer has been called an “enemy of medical freedom,” a “health czar,” “not a real doctor” and “evil,” he told the 17-person committee Thursday during a lengthy opening statement.
The committee did not take a vote on whether to advance his confirmation.
Complaints about Simmer have centered around the state’s response to COVID-19. Opponents have claimed Simmer pushed shutdowns, even though he still lived in Virginia until December 2020, when he retired after three decades in the Navy.
He didn’t take the helm of DHEC until February 2021, nearly a year into the pandemic. Senators voted 40-1 to confirm him as the agency was rolling out vaccines.
“Dr. Edward Simmer’s track record during the pandemic demonstrated a clear disregard for South Carolinians’ values and freedoms, prioritizing mandates and divisive policies over individual rights,” Sen. Tom Fernandez, a Summerville Republican who sits on the committee, wrote on Facebook in a post Simmer specifically addressed Thursday.
That was “completely false,” Simmer said. Even if he had been in the state when the pandemic began in 2020, he wouldn’t have recommended closing schools or businesses, he said.
“Let me be perfectly clear, so that everyone on this committee and every citizen of this state can hear it directly from me,” Simmer said. “I have never prioritized any mandates, and I will continue to preserve and defend South Carolinians’ freedoms and individual rights.”
Simmer has received threatening letters, in which people have said they want to hurt him because he promoted vaccines they see as “putting poison in people’s arms,” he said.
Someone crumpled up his license plate and placed “a very crude attempt to make something look like a bomb,” composed of wires and a battery pack, under his car, in an apparent attempt to intimidate him, he said.
“No threats, no lies on social media, no smear campaign from cowards, many of whom hide behind anonymous letters and false social media identities, will ever deter me from continuing to serve the people of South Carolina to the very best of my ability,” Simmer told the committee.
COVID-19 response
Whether to wear a mask or get vaccinated is a personal choice people should make alongside their doctor, Simmer said. Demonstrating that personal choice, he wore a mask long after most others in the state had stopped because doctors for his wife, Peggy, recommended it, he said.
Peggy Simmer has medical conditions that put her at very high risk for getting COVID-19. The disease would likely be life-threatening for her if she contracted it, Edward Simmer said.
People “expressed outrage and have even mocked me for wearing a mask,” he told the committee.
“But believe me, I will wear a mask again without hesitation if that is what it takes to protect Peggy,” Simmer said.
Looking back, Simmer said he did the best with the information he had. If he could do it differently, he would have recommended lighter restrictions. For instance, instead of recommending that schools require students and staff to wear masks indoors, he would suggest schools leave the decision up to students, he said.
He lacked the authority to require that himself.
He issued guidance to the state Department of Education that schools require masks, but when McMaster ordered an immediate end in May 2021 to those requirements, he followed the governor’s directive to create a parental opt-out form. His repeated, public recommendation three months later came as he asked the Legislature to repeal its ban on mask mandates.
He also would have done more to explain why officials were making the decisions they did and what information drove them, he said.
“Indeed, my detractors often overlook that during the COVID-19 response, public health officials simply did not have all the information that we do today,” Simmer said. “No one did.”
Some of the vitriol directed toward Simmer could have been misplaced anger for Anthony Fauci’s response to the pandemic, suggested Sen. Josh Kimbrell. As chief medical advisor to the president, Fauci recommended stay-at-home orders, mask mandates and social distancing in order to combat the spread of the virus.
“I think that was a heavy-handed response,” said Kimbrell, R-Boiling Springs. “Do you believe that your confirmation, your renomination, is colored at least in part by how (Fauci) responded to the national emergency?”
“Unfortunately, it probably is,” Simmer replied, adding that he also disagreed with some of Fauci’s decisions.
Sen. Tom Corbin questioned Simmer’s decision to encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Repeating debunked claims that the vaccine can alter a person’s DNA, Corbin asked if Simmer felt it was responsible for the state health department to push it.
“It is my contention that it is wrong for this state to promote the vaccine as safe and effective when in my opinion it is not,” the Travelers Rest Republican said.
Studies have shown this is not true, Simmer said. The vaccine has some rare side effects, so people should consult with a doctor before getting it, but in the vast majority of cases, studies show the vaccine is safe and effective, he said.
“I want to make DPH’s public health role crystal clear,” Simmer said. “We inform. You decide.”
McMaster, who is a Republican, has repeatedly defended Simmer as his pick for the job. Before taking over DHEC, Simmer oversaw Tricare Health Plan, the military’s massive health system for care outside military hospitals. Before that, he spent 12 years working in various positions as a naval doctor, McMaster said.
DHEC had been without a permanent director for eight months when Simmer took over. He was also the first doctor in decades to lead the public health agency.
“He’s enormously qualified. He’s enormously talented,” McMaster said. “I don’t know why it is that people are criticizing him, because I don’t think anybody can put a finger on something he’s done that’s either unethical or wrong.”
Other accomplishments
The department’s work goes far beyond the COVID-19 recommendations that have become a political flashpoint, Simmer said.
As DHEC director, Simmer shepherded the agency through the split and a move to a new campus. The agency is building a “state-of-the-art” laboratory, where researchers will test diseases, including screening newborns for potentially life-threatening but easily treatable genetic diseases, Simmer said.
Last year, South Carolina ranked 37th in the country for health outcomes, a metric that looks at premature deaths, prevalence of diseases and access to medical care. That’s not where the state should be, but it’s a big improvement over the many decades in which the Palmetto State consistently ranked in the bottom 10 states, Simmer said.
Leading the state Department of Public Health is Simmer’s “dream job,” he told reporters after the meeting.
With the threats he has received, there have been days when he has asked himself whether he really wants to continue doing the work, but in every case, he decides that he does, he said.
“I truly believe in our mission,” Simmer said. “I believe in the great work that we do. I have a wonderful team to work with, and every day I go to work, I can positively impact the lives of 5 million people.”
Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. Originally from Missouri, she previously worked for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau. S.C. Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
