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 and a .
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 .
She won a in 2015 for creating a video called "," and a 2014 for producing a series on .
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, , and went on to study documentary radio at the , before coming to NPR as an intern in 2009.
She lives in Washington, DC, with her spouse and kids.
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With case and death counts still surging, the pressure is on to vaccinate as many people as possible. Here's what it will take to get more Americans their shots, fast. -
One of the two leading vaccine candidates requires deep, deep freezing. Here's how communities are working to solve for this and how the new Moderna vaccine could help. -
Where are hospitals reaching capacity? Which metro areas are running out of beds? NPR has learned federal agencies collect and analyze this information in detail but don't share it with the public. -
Though the Trump administration is trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act in court, it's vowed that people with health problems will still be able to get insured. Here's why that could be tricky. -
A vaccine will only work if a lot of people can get immunized. State health officials are working furiously to design outreach and distribution plans, with little clarity from the federal government. -
"We've got to take a deep breath," says one health official about the rapid timeline pushed by the CDC. "It is very clear that we need to lean forward to prepare to deliver the vaccine." -
NPR surveyed all 50 states to find out how many people they have doing contact tracing 鈥� one of the essential tools for keeping outbreaks from flaring up. Look up your state to see how it's doing. -
Trump has reversed Obama-era protections that prohibit discrimination in health care based on gender identity. Critics warn the rule could harm a vulnerable group 鈥� LGBTQ people 鈥� during a pandemic. -
To safely reopen without risking new COVID-19 outbreaks, states need staff to do the crucial work of contact tracing. Public health agencies report they have aggressive plans to grow their workforce. -
Here's what it will take for medical facilities across the nation to handle the coming surge of COVID-19 patients.
