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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Distribution of the Pfizer vaccine has begun, with shipments expected to reach 636 sites this week. The first shots could be given as soon as tomorrow.
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An independent federal advisory committee to the CDC recommends the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people over 16. But state health leaders say distribution and funding challenges remain. -
President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Dr. Rochelle Walensky to be the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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In the final weeks of his administration, President Trump is pushing through policies and making appointments that his successor will have to contend with.
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As COVID-19 hospitalizations surge, new data released by the federal government show how many hospitals are struggling with staffing. -
The federal government released data showing that the number of hospitals with staffing shortages is rapidly increasing. NPR digs into what these data illuminate and what data might be kept hidden.
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NPR discusses how the Biden administration's approach to health care would be different from President Trump's.
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The Trump administration has been marked by a scaled-back federal investment and involvement in U.S. health care. Biden's team has plans to change that — even if Republicans retain Senate control. -
Internal Documents Reveal COVID-19 Hospitalization Data The Government Keeps HiddenWhere 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. -
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.
