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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Much is unknown about the omicron variant. Scientists are scrambling to gather information. But with the first case of omicron confirmed in the U.S., public health officials can't afford to be silent.
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Physicians weigh in on what you need to know about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, and how to think about the risks and benefits of vaccinating your kid
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School-aged children are now eligible for Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, as CDC director Rochelle Walensky issued the recommendation supporting this version of the vaccine.
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Choosing between health insurance plans can be a headache. How do you pick the right one?
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Children ages 5-11 are a step closer to being eligible for the Pfizer COVID vaccine. It's a lower-dose formulation and expected to go to an advisory panel of the CDC next.
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Kids are one step closer to being eligible for COVID-19 vaccination after the Food and Drug administration extended its emergency use authorization of Pfizer's vaccine for children ages 5-11.
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A panel of Food and Drug Administration advisors voted on whether the agency should authorize Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11.
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Many COVID-19 trendlines are headed in a positive direction in the U.S., but there are lots of unknowns about what will happen this winter as vaccinations still lag behind many other countries.
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A lower dose of the Pfizer vaccine showed nearly a 91% efficacy rate in a trial of children ages 5-11, according to the company. Boosters for Moderna and J&J are officially now authorized.
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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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After promising booster shots to all recipients of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, then only some, 20 million Americans are now officially eligible to receive them.