Liberty Action activists in South Carolina along with legislators succeeded in ousting "Health Czar" Dr. Edward Simmer last week for his disastrous Fauci-esque COVID policies. While most COVID-era bureaucrats rode off into the sunset scot-free, South Carolina conservatives are proving that liberty-minded citizens can still hold officials accountable.
Simmer was appointed to lead South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) in 2021 by Gov. Henry McMaster. Simmer supported mask mandates in schools, vaccine mandates for children as young as five, and, during confirmation hearings, acknowledged support for quarantining people for mere exposure to COVID. Simmer became the face of centralized government power in South Carolina during COVID.
In 2022, the legislature passed a bill that split DHEC into two departments: Public Health and Environmental Services. However, a year later, a bill came out that would consolidate seven different state agencies into a single department–it was dubbed the “Health Czar Bill.” The bill would allow the DHEC director to make dictates that would override local law enforcement orders during a state of emergency, such as COVID.
SC State Rep. Josiah Magnuson, a Hazlitt Coalition member, was strenuously opposed to the merger.
“All of this going under one roof, it was concerning for us, especially since what was being proposed was to take it from being a commission where you would have any decisions be divided amongst seven people and put it all under one person,” Magnuson said. “That's how we got the term ‘health czar,’ because we were like, ‘This is crazy. Like, we're putting all this power in one person's hands for all these seven state agencies, essentially.’”
The legislators advocated for several measures to make the bill “less ominous,” including requiring legislative approval for appointments, but they all fell on deaf ears. When the bill came up for a vote, Magnuson knew he had to object. And since it was the last day of session, it only took one objection to kill it.
“So, they asked, ‘Is there unanimous consent to take up the bill?’ And so I just stood up and said, ‘Mr. Speaker, I object.’ And it was sort of like you could hear a pin drop, and they all were shocked,” Magnuson said. “A whole bunch of people came and gathered around me and tried to convince me to remove my objection. But at the end of the day, there was nothing they could do.”
Liberty Action Field Manager Dan Stuart said pressure from activists is what ultimately ended Simmer’s reign.
“The governor, Henry McMaster, kept him there on an interim basis where he'd appoint him as interim director, the clock would run out, he would appoint him as interim director again,” Stuart said. “And last year he decided, ‘Enough games, I'm just gonna nominate him as the permanent director.’ So we launched into action to pressure legislators and were ultimately successful in stopping his permanent appointment, which culminated in…he was relieved of his duties and is no longer overseeing the Department of Public Health.”
Liberty Action activists, along with United Patriots Alliance, were instrumental in stopping Simmer’s appointment and holding the government accountable for its COVID-era authoritarianism.
“I think it's important that we remember the lessons from COVID and from the lockdowns,” Stuart said. “Unfortunately, I don't really think we've seen too much accountability there. Fauci's still walking free, and he's not in prison even though he lied to the American public. So this at least shows that there is some accountability and people are willing to fight back and remember the lessons of the lockdowns and the COVID tyranny that we saw.”
Removing Simmer was a victory, but the fight for medical freedom isn’t over. The old DHEC law still contains the provision about overruling local law enforcement during a state of emergency, according to Magnuson. “So that is still something that, even though there's not technically the health czar like there would have been in the other scenario, that still is too much power for one person, I would say.”
Liberty-minded activists and legislators in South Carolina proved that it’s not too late to hold power-hungry bureaucrats accountable for authoritarian COVID policies, and prevent them from holding public office in the future.
To donate to Liberty Action as they fight for healthcare freedom nationwide, click here.
