Senate Medical Affairs committee fails to give favorable report to public health nominee after hours of COVID-era questioning

The Senate Medical Affairs Committee on Thursday declined to forward a favorable report on Dr. Simmer’s nomination to serve as director of the Department of Public Health after a day-long confirmation hearing focused heavily on his leadership at DHEC during the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee’s roll-call tally on the nomination was 5 in favor and 12 opposed, producing no favorable recommendation to the full Senate.

Committee members questioned Dr. Simmer about DHEC’s pandemic-era promotion of vaccination, mask recommendations in schools, the agency’s use of opt-out forms, and whether the agency adequately investigated outside researchers’ claims about contaminants in vaccine vials. Senator Cash (Anderson) pressed the nominee on the relationship between aggressive vaccination promotion and the principles of informed consent, asking about incentives such as offering beverages at clinics and the agency’s opt-out language for school masking. “Informed consent must include understanding,” Senator Cash told Dr. Simmer during questioning.

Dr. Simmer repeatedly defended the agency’s work and his approach. “No one forced anyone to get a vaccine,” he said, and testified that DHEC provided informed-consent forms at vaccination events and that “informed consent was absolutely crucial to what we did.” He said that parental opt-outs were permitted for school masking and that the DHEC board, which directed some actions, made several decisions the agency carried out.

Several senators pressed on where DHEC diverged from federal guidance. Dr. Simmer said the agency did not follow CDC guidance “lockstep” and gave as examples local school-return recommendations and vaccine-schedule choices. He told the committee he had personally criticized CDC leadership in emails at the time for poor communication and said South Carolina at times “varied from the CDC.”

Members also raised questions about research and follow-up. Lawmakers cited testimony by a University of South Carolina scientist who reported finding plasmid DNA in vaccine vials. Senator Cash asked whether DHEC had engaged directly with that researcher; Dr. Simmer said he had reviewed a proposed research project with the scientist’s supervisor and made suggestions but had not spoken directly with the researcher because he had not been given contact information. “We offered to talk to him directly,” Dr. Simmer said, and said the agency worked with the university to propose further research.

The nominee acknowledged he would handle some things differently with the benefit of hindsight. “Knowing what I know today, there are a number of things I would do differently,” he said at the hearing.

Other issues cited by senators included mask policy shifts between May and August 2021, the use of mobile vaccination units and other outreach tactics, and DHEC’s public messaging about risks such as myocarditis in younger people. Dr. Simmer told the panel the agency did warn about myocarditis risks for young adults and that evidence of persistent spike protein or DNA fragments had not been shown to cause long-term harm based on available peer-reviewed research, though he said additional research would be useful.

Lawmakers also asked whether the department had the authority or the systems to investigate reported adverse events. Dr. Simmer said federal reporting systems limit the detail available to state health officials and described a need to build a stronger state data-collection and investigation capacity: “We would need a much better information collection system,” he told the committee, adding that doing so would require staff and funding.

The committee’s action means Dr. Simmer’s nomination did not receive a favorable committee recommendation; the matter may nonetheless be considered by the full Senate under chamber rules.

Ending: The hearing produced a lengthy public record of pandemic-era disagreements over masking, vaccination strategies and emergency powers, and committee members diverged over whether those differences disqualified Dr. Simmer from leading the newly created Department of Public Health. The committee’s vote closes this stage of the confirmation process.