Overview
- Five registered attendees were escorted out of the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions in New Orleans on June 5 after handing out copies of an editorial published in the ADA journal Diabetes Care that criticized President Trump’s proposed NIH cuts.
- Video published by MedPage Today shows onsite security and local officers physically confronting the researchers, including an officer grabbing one participant and a plainclothes agent taking papers from another.
- Those removed say they were warned they would be arrested if they tried to re-enter the meeting and that badges were confiscated; the ADA says the removals followed violations of its conference code of conduct.
- Prominent diabetes clinicians and researchers have demanded an apology, posted an open letter and petition, and raised concerns after the ADA canceled some Diabetes Care editorial and staff meetings.
- The editorial warned that a requested $5 billion NIH reduction and other HHS and NIH changes threaten U.S. biomedical research, and the dispute has put renewed focus on how scientific associations balance nonpartisanship, governance, and protection of open scientific discourse.