Selena Simmons-Duffin
Selena Simmons-Duffin reports on health policy for NPR.
She has worked at NPR for ten years as a show editor and producer, with one stopover at WAMU in 2017 as part of a staff exchange. For four months, she reported local Washington, DC, health stories, including a secretive maternity ward closure and a gesundheit machine.
Before coming to All Things Considered in 2016, Simmons-Duffin spent six years on Morning Edition working shifts at all hours and directing the show. She also drove the full length of the U.S.-Mexico border in 2014 for the "Borderland" series.
She won a Gracie Award in 2015 for creating a video called "Talking While Female," and a 2014 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for producing a series on why you should love your microbes.
Simmons-Duffin attended Stanford University, where she majored in English. She took time off from college to do HIV/AIDS-related work in East Africa. She started out in radio at Stanford's radio station, KZSU, and went on to study documentary radio at the Salt Institute, before coming to NPR as an intern in 2009.
She lives in Washington, DC, with her spouse and kids.
-
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held only two telebriefings in 2021. That lack of transparency has prompted criticism — and a pledge from director Dr. Rochelle Walensky to be more open. -
Physicians weigh in on what you need to know about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, and how to think about the risks and benefits of vaccinating your kid.
-
There are a couple of big steps to get through before U.S. kids under 12 might be able to get the vaccine. Here's how the process works and when the shots could arrive.
-
A family in Houston and a plumber in Maryland couldn't afford rent, which pushed them into crowded living quarters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, that common predicament has increased viral spread.
-
Many families are under financial stress, parents see kids seriously behind in school, huge rent bills and looming evictions and delayed medical care has negative consequences, to name a few.
-
The new Texas law bans abortions after a "fetal heartbeat" is detected, usually about six weeks into pregnancy. But doctors say that's not an actual medical term and it's being used inaccurately.
-
With news about vaccinated people getting coronavirus infections, should you be worried? How common are breakthrough infections? Here's what scientists know and what they're trying to learn.
-
The highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading fast and driving new cases and hospitalizations. Here's what you need to know to keep yourself and your kids from getting sick.
-
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shifted its stance this week on the need to wear masks if you're vaccinated. What's that mean for kids? For travel? For work? Experts weigh in.
-
The announcement, which effectively reverses a Trump-era rule, springs from last summer's landmark Supreme Court decision banning employment discrimination against LGBTQ people.
