AP: Retired military doctor is SC health agency’s new director

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)– The South Carolina Senate has hired a military doctor to be the new director of the state’s beleaguered health and environmental agency. Dr. Edward Simmer’s nomination to run the Department of Health and Environmental Control was approved 40-1 in the Senate on Thursday. The director job  had been vacant for more than seven months as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. Simmer promises to improve COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the state and use those lessons to improve rural health and community outreach. Simmer retired from three decades of Navy service at the end of last year. He previously oversaw civilian health care insurance for the Defense Health Agency in Virginia and ran the Naval hospital in Beaufort.