'My slogan is people first': DHEC director's main priority is fighting COVID-19

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The new director of the South Carolina Department of Environmental Control (DHEC) officially took over his new role around two weeks ago.

Dr. Edward Simmer was confirmed to as the new director on February 4. He says his main priority is defeating COVID-19 and getting everyone in the state vaccinated.

“My slogan is people first,” Simmer said.

Simmer was selected as the new director in the middle of a pandemic, a challenge he says he wants to tackle head on.

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“You have to hit the ground running,” Simmer said. “Obviously short term we have to defeat COVID and that’s our number one focus and goal, and that means getting as many people vaccinated as possible. We need heard immunity of 75-80%, so were working very hard to get the vaccine out.”

Simmer, an Ohio native who served as a captain in the United States Navy, said when the opportunity for this position became open, he had to go for it.

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“My goal for DHEC is to ensure everything we do is for the people of South Carolina that we improve the health, and welfare and quality of life,” Simmer said.

With vaccinations as a top priority Simmer said his focus is also on making sure shots are available in both rural and urban areas.

“We want to make sure the vaccine is distributed fairly and to everyone in the state,” Simmer said.

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One of his goals is to have majority of South Carolinians vaccinated by the end of summer.

“We really are focused on getting people access to the vaccine, but I do expect by hopefully late summer we will be at that 75-80% heard immunity and really turn a corner on this thing,” Simmer said.

Simmer also mentioned the recent weather conditions that caused vaccine shipping delays this past week.

South Carolina was one of the impacted states, but at last check, South Carolina has received almost all the vaccine doses for this week. 

Simmer said they are waiting on two more shipments and expect those to arrive by Monday to put us back on track. Simmer said the shipments typically vary in size, but these last two shipments contain about 24,000 doses.