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Monday, December 2, 2024 - 05:32 PM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

SC Poised to Oppose RFK Jrs Health Policy with New Appointment

On Tuesday, November 19th, 2024, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster appointed Dr. Simmer (the previous head of the DHEC) as the Department of Public Health director. This appointment came after the recent split of Department of Health and Environmental Control into two agencies due to Act 60 that became effective July 1st, 2024.

This appointment came as a shock to South Carolinians since many legislators tried to convince the public that they needed to pass the Executive Office of Health Policy legislation, also known as the Health Czar bill (S.915/H.4927) so Governor Henry McMaster could hold appointed health officials “accountable” and remove bad actors like Dr. Simmer. Check out this audio between one of the authors of the bill, Senator Tom Davis, and our co-founder Janis Price at Palmetto State Watch’s fundraiser on April 27, 2024. In this audio, Senator Davis states that the reason they split the two departments (Act 60) was to hold Dr. Simmer accountable since he “was a Health Czar” during COVID-19 pandemic. However, it seems McMaster sees nothing wrong with Dr. Simmer and unconstitutional use of power as DHEC director during the pandemic.

[ Click HERE to listen to Audio ]

Dr. Simmer’s Background

Before DHEC, Dr. Edward Simmer served as the first Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for the TRICARE Health Plan at the Defense Health Agency in Falls Church, Virginia. TRICARE is the insurance company for the military and is partnered with Centene, who is the fourth largest healthcare provider by revenue in the United States. Governor McMaster has put a guy who has an insurance worldview in charge of South Carolina’s health, and is attempting to put him in charge once again. When has an insurance company ever had the interests of the insurers at heart?

Prior to TRICARE, Dr. Simmer was a military psychiatrist who served in places like Guantanamo Bay. You can see his full resume HERE.

DHEC Under Dr. Simmer’s Leadership During Pandemic

Governor Henry McMaster appointed Dr. Simmer to be the director of DHEC in December 2020, followed by the SC Senate confirmation in February 2021.

Under Dr. Simmer’s supervision, DHEC released numerous “guidelines” that dictated who could and couldn’t wear a mask and continuously pushed vaccine campaigns, all lockstep with the CDC and NIH. If you take a look at DHEC’s released statements from 2021 up until 2024, many are just restating “guidelines” and “policies” straight from international health organizations that have been hostile toward informed consent to vaccination, which includes the right to refuse a vaccine without coercion, harassment, or penalty.

In March of 2021, DHEC released a statement from Simmer: “Until enough of us get vaccinated, we must all continue to wear masks, stay six feet away from others, and avoid crowds, even after we have received the vaccine.” In July of 2021, DHEC made a statement rejecting “misinformation” of COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Simmer led the charge on requiring mask mandates for adults and children alike during 2021 even after the state legislature passed a proviso that prohibited schools from using state funding to enforce mask mandates. “Strictly from a public health standpoint, the best way to protect our children is to require the use of masks by everyone in the school,” Dr. Simmer told the board. “Whether or not our schools are allowed to do that, I think, is a question that is an open one. I know there may well be a legal case regarding that. I’m certainly not an expert on that area, and I can’t really comment on that part.”

So…Simmer required South Carolinians to wear masks knowing it may be unconstitutional, yet he did it anyway. As we have stated in a previous article, the governor will not remove COVID-dictators like Dr. Simmer, who still wears a mask three years after COVID even after new data has proven the ineffectiveness of face coverings. During the pandemic, Governor McMaster released joint statements with DHEC, applauding South Carolina’s COVID-19 vaccination rate and calling for “more people to roll up their sleeve.”

Simmer Rebuttals SC Health Experts at SC Senate Committee Hearing

Several South Carolina doctors, lawyers, and scientists testified in September 2023 about DHEC and the harms the organization inflicted on the citizens of the Palmetto State during the COVID pandemic. Dr. Simmer’s rebuttal of these experts was laughable at best as he faced scrutiny from the panel of SC senators and lawyers regarding his decisions as DHEC’s director. We will let his words speak for themselves. Listen to the testimony HERE. Check out the summary of this hearing at the Magnifying Glass Podcast, episode 8.

What is Public Health?

The newly formed South Carolina Department of Health seems to reference the CDC often so we decided to take a look for ourselves. The CDC Foundation defines public health as the “science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities.” It goes on to say that “public health also works to limit health disparities. A large part of public health is promoting health care equity, quality and accessibility.”

As we have observed the last three years, Dr. Edward Simmer relies heavily on organizations like the CDC for their definitions, data, and direction even though the CDC seems to care more about DEI rather than actually improving health. This is not surprising, as DHEC is working on launching a health equity dashboard for South Carolina.

What Happened to MAHA?

Since Simmer is so hooked into the CDC and NIH, what is Simmer going to do when RFK Jr. starts reducing and refocusing the federal Health and Human Services department? Is Simmer going to block South Carolina from a healthier future?

More importantly, why should someone with such an obvious bias against medical freedom be directing South Carolina’s health department, especially after Simmer’s dangerous pandemic response?

Author Ken Ham said it best: “It is not a matter of whether one is biased or not. It is really a question of which bias is the best bias with which to be biased.” South Carolina’s health director needs to have a bias that minimizes risk. When you have a health director whose worldview is from an insurance company, you will most likely not be receiving care for the improvement of your health. This has proven true as it seems more difficult to receive any kind of healthcare in South Carolina, whether or not it is good for the patient. Health insurance companies are no better than vehicle insurance companies, as their claims always seem to benefit them, not you.

With the incoming presidential administration, SC Republicans have no excuse when picking a director to lead South Carolina’s public health department. It is time to put an end to medical tyranny in the Palmetto State, and it starts by releasing Dr. Simmer from the position he has abused the past three years.

What You Can Do

According to SC Code of Law, Section 44-1-1 requires the SC Senate to confirm the new director of the Public Health department. Contact your SC Senator and tell them to vote AGAINST Dr. Simmer’s confirmation appointment. South Carolinians deserve a director that has a track record of preserving medical freedom in our state, not constricting it.

[ Click HERE to view Sen. Cash Speaking ]

SC Senator Richard Cash explains that the Senate can deny the Governor’s confirmation if a health director is not “extremely qualified” for the job and that if they put the wrong person into place, the Senate will fix it.