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.
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The CDC warns new COVID-19 cases are on a sharp rise, up 70%, fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant. Officials expect more spread in the nation's unvaccinated population.
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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. -
They don't qualify for Medicaid in their states, but earn too little to be eligible for subsidized ACA health plans. It's a gap in health care coverage, and some politicians are trying to fix it. -
Bad news for parents of young kids: summer colds are back. Things like strategic mask wearing during story time or homework with a sick child can help prevent you from catching and spreading the cold.
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Run-of-the-mill runny noses and coughs are back, after a break during the pandemic's height, when so many of us were circulating less and wearing masks. Here's how to keep household viruses at bay.
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Many tools and strategies learned in the fight against COVID-19 can also work to stop the spread of routine respiratory viruses kids routinely pick up and pass around.
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Despite a massive hiring push last year, health agencies around the U.S. failed to contain the pandemic through contact tracing. Health leaders reflect on lessons learned and what's next. -
Contact tracing transformed in 2020 from a routine part of public health work to a massive effort to contain COVID-19. Experts from the CDC and public health departments reflect on lessons learned.
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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. -
A new Harvard poll shows that only half of Americans trust the CDC — other health agencies were rated even lower. During a pandemic, trust is critical to the success of a public health response.
