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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Swamped by thousands of calls a day, contact tracing programs have been forced to adapt. Even though they can't call everyone, experts say it's too early to give up on this pillar of disease control. -
The Health Resources and Services Administration is distributing $66.5 million to community groups working across 38 states and Washington, D.C. to help with local vaccine outreach. -
The first big hurdle was crossed when Pfizer shared its clinical trial data with the FDA. Now there are five more steps to get through before this vulnerable population can be vaccinated. -
The White House launched two new efforts to help Americans get free access to rapid COVID tests. It's still hard to find tests, and reimbursement for tests bought at a store isn't necessarily easy.
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When he came into office, Biden launched an ambitious seven-point plan for defeating the virus. Here's how experts score his results. -
President Biden announced new measures to respond to the COVID surge. He is sending troops to hospitals in some states and said that more tests and masks are being ordered for distribution nationwide.
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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. -
The new CDC guidelines for COVID-19 isolation and quarantine have garnered a lot of criticism. And this is just one example of the agency's on going communication problems.
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Subtle developmental differences in children whose brains seemed normal at birth underscore the need to follow children long term — a lesson that may be key for babies exposed to COVID-19. -
President Biden is laying out his next steps for taking on the omicron variant, including giving out more at-home tests and sending support teams to overwhelmed hospitals.
