Dr. Edward Simmer, interim director of the Department of Public Health, answers questions from senators during his confirmation hearing on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (Screenshot of SCETV legislative livestream)
COLUMBIA — Senators moved to fire the interim director of the state’s public health department Tuesday, resuming a push from last year to oust the agency head over concerns about his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Formerly the head of the Department of Health and Environmental Control, Edward Simmer has overseen the state health department since legislators split the massive agency in two in 2024.
Despite sailing through the Senate for his initial confirmation in 2021, the Senate Medical Affairs Committee voted to reject Simmer’s leadership last year. With no replacement lined up, Simmer has remained in the role since then.
An amendment senators added to a bill changing the confirmation process Tuesday would officially end Simmer’s tenure. Under the proposal, approved 40-0 on Tuesday, Simmer would have to leave the job May 14, the last day of the legislative session. Another vote will send the legislation to the House.
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“The consensus in the Senate is that Dr. Simmer should probably find another job,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, who proposed the amendment, told reporters.
Senators added the amendment by voice vote to a bill that would change how the confirmation process works, limiting how long agency directors can serve in interim status without Senate approval and removing 35 boards and commissions from those senators must approve.
The Senate could have taken up Simmer’s appointment directly, but even if the Senate rejected him, Simmer could remain in his position indefinitely, Massey said.
The law that created the agency allows Simmer to stay in place until he leaves or the governor chooses someone else for the job, potentially allowing Simmer to stay in place until a new governor takes over in January and makes his or her own nominations for Cabinet agency directors.
The Senate has already left Simmer in charge as interim director for a year, Massey said.
“Now, we feel like we need to force it,” the Edgefield Republican said.
McMaster’s office declined to comment Tuesday, but the governor has stood behind his pick in the past.
“I remain resolute in my support of Dr. Ed Simmer and am hopeful that the full Senate will see through the falsehoods and mistruths being spread about his service to our state and nation,” McMaster said in a statement posted to X last year, after senators voted down Simmer’s appointment.
Simmer, a psychiatrist, lacks the support of the Senate, which has a Republican supermajority, Massey said. The amendment would instruct McMaster to choose a new interim agency head, with the requirement that he choose someone other than Simmer.
Finding a replacement is easier said than done. Before McMaster chose Simmer, the health department went eight months without a permanent director. Trying to find someone willing to lead the agency, knowing the incoming governor will almost certainly replace that person, likely makes the process even more challenging, Massey said.
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But the Senate still felt it was time for Simmer to leave, he said.
Senators almost exclusively took issue with Simmer’s leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. During his confirmation hearings, senators asked little about the other issues the agency addresses except to compliment its work.
When Simmer started as agency leader in February 2021, the state was in the early stages of rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine. Senators criticized how the department under Simmer’s supervision encouraged people to get the jab, including through mobile vaccination units, vaccine booths at events, and perks, such as free beer, for people who got immunized.
Often repeating false claims that the vaccine was harmful, senators said during Simmer’s hearings that they felt his efforts amounted to more of a mandate than a choice, which they opposed.
Since October, Simmer has led the state through another outbreak. Nearly 1,000 people across the state have contracted measles, forming the country’s largest outbreak since the disease was declared eradicated in 2000. Vaccinations have increased significantly compared to the same months a year ago, slowing the spread of the disease.
Massey didn’t credit Simmer for the outbreak’s plateau in recent weeks.
“I’ve not been persuaded that having Dr. Simmer there affects the spread of that disease,” Massey said. “So, I don’t know that having him in that leadership position is going to make much of a difference on measles over the next nine or 10 months.”
Removing Simmer could offer an incentive for the House to pass a bill that it might otherwise ignore because it primarily impacts the Senate’s role in confirming the governor’s picks, Massey said.
Members of the House’s ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus attempted to reduce Simmer’s salary from $258,960 to $1 during budget debates last week. That proposal failed after other representatives pointed out it would make hiring a replacement pretty much impossible.
“I’m hopeful that that language will encourage the House to take up the bill and to move it along as well,” Massey said.
Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
