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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Did the eviction moratorium work to slow COVID? When people can't afford rent, they often end up in closer quarters. During a pandemic, that increases the risk of viral transmission.
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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.
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The rate of new cases of COVID-19 among babies and children under 4 years old in the U.S. recently surpassed the rate of new cases among adults older than 65. Here's how to protect newborns. -
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.
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Mask mandates and other interventions can help stop a surge, even where vaccination rates are low, say scientists who've reviewed states' data. When the measures start and how long they last matters.
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A statistician compiled data to share with the CDC after friends kept testing positive after a week in Provincetown, Mass. It spurred an investigation that changed how officials saw the delta variant.
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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.
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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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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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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.
