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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U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., cancelled $500 million in mRNA vaccine development contracts this week. We discuss how the move follows a trend of actions by the Trump administration that ignore the advice of subject-matter experts. This episode: political correspondent Ashley Lopez, health policy correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. This podcast was produced by Casey Morell & Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR's Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.
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President Trump and members of his administration have often expressed a distrust of science and experts. That distrust is now helping to shape policies in several areas of government, from vaccines and health care to trade and the economy.
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Much of the public health agency's $9 billion budget had been in limbo, but funds are finally flowing, according to CDC staffers, including for a key overdose prevention program. -
A coalition of 16 states and D.C. argue in the lawsuit that the Trump administration is trying to effectuate a national ban on gender-affirming care for youth by intimidating hospitals and doctors. -
In the U.S., as nowhere else, health insurance and employment are deeply connected. And that means confusion can snare even elite athletes. -
A new analysis shows that health insurance premiums for Obamacare are set to soar next year, as financial help that subsidized the cost expires. Congress is not likely to extend the subsidies. -
The state and local health departments that rely on CDC funding say the money is not coming in on time and no one can tell them why. Some are laying off staff. -
In recent years, health insurers ramped up the practice of requiring doctors to get their approval before tests and procedures. On Monday, health leaders announced voluntary reforms from insurers. -
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Prevention Lifeline included a service that provided specialized suicide prevention support by phone and text for LGBTQ+ kids. That's ending. -
Americans across the political spectrum like Medicaid and think it should get more funding, not less, according to a new poll from health research organization KFF.
