The news of Governor Henry McMaster reappointing Dr. Edward Simmer as the Director of the South Carolina Public Health Department has understandably angered countless South Carolinians following Simmer’s failed career as the head of DHEC during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. To fully comprehend Simmer’s mistakes as the Director of DHEC, I reviewed all of DHEC’s board meetings from 2021 and boiled down the main clips so you don’t have to.
As the Health Director of South Carolina during the pandemic, Simmer spearheaded all vaccination efforts of adults and children, required masks for kids in school against the legislature’s efforts to block unconstitutional mask mandates, lied and contradicted himself on the vaccine’s effectiveness, and created several incentives to get citizens vaccinated without providing fully informed consent (just to name a few.) Dr. Simmer consistently and constantly pushed the agenda and recommendations of the CDC, and in some cases took the CDC’s recommendations to the next level. Learn more by checking out our last article that covered Simmer’s concerning background and how this poises SC to oppose RFK Jr.’s Health Policy HERE.
Governor Henry McMaster appointed Dr. Simmer to be the director of DHEC in December 2020, followed by the SC Senate confirmation in February 2021. Simmer is now being reappointed as Director of Public Health after Act 60 split DHEC into two entities.
Check out this highlight reel of over 25 hours of 2021 DHEC board meetings led by Dr. Simmer boiled down in less than 30 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV-Ao2ZaEk8&t=2s