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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Like millions of others, Liz McLemore always got her health insurance coverage through her job. In April, she suddenly had to figure out how to find coverage in the middle of a pandemic.
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At least 27 million Americans who lost their jobs in recent weeks also lost their health insurance, a new report finds. Others lacked a health plan even before COVID-19 hit. Here's how to find help.
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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.
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NPR's health policy and national correspondents update on the latest coronavirus news.
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After promising on April 7 that data on how COVID-19 is affecting people of different races would be available in a few days, the Trump administration now says it won't happen until early May.
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Political leaders want to reopen the economy soon, but public health experts say we first need to set up systems to prevent new flare-ups of the coronavirus. Here's what needs to get done.
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It's a technique widely used in other countries to slow the spread of infection. Here's how contact tracing works — and how it can help the U.S. start to get back to normal.
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We're in shutdown mode for now, but what comes next? Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is working on a plan to safely reopen the country.
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An office of the Department of Health and Human Services surveyed 323 U.S. hospitals and found shortages of "intravenous therapy poles, medical gas, linens and food." Many are still scrambling.
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A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General presents an overview of how America's hospitals are responding to the coronavirus crisis.
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What's behind the "14 days of self-quarantine" guidance after exposure to someone with COVID-19 or after travel from a place with a high number of cases? Think of yourself as a potential incubator.
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Aetna, Cigna and Humana now say they will waive most treatment costs associated with COVID-19 that would normally be picked up by patients enrolled in their health plans. Will other firms follow suit?