The head of the American Diabetes Association issued a public apology Wednesday after the organization used police to remove five prominent diabetes scientists from its annual conference in New Orleans last Friday.
The scientists were ejected while handing out copies of an editorial published in the ADA's own journal, Diabetes Care, that criticized the Trump administration for what the authors described as damage to biomedical research. According to a report by Ars Technica, police escorted the scientists out of the conference within minutes of their beginning to distribute the editorial, shoved at least one researcher, took all of their conference badges and threatened to arrest them if they returned. Louisiana State Police later told media that they acted at the request of the ADA.
The five scientists included Steven Kahn, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington and editor-in-chief of Diabetes Care, who co-authored the editorial. Also among them was Desmond Schatz, a former ADA president from the University of Florida, along with Aaron Kelly, a pediatrics professor at the University of Minnesota; Justin Ryder of Northwestern University; and Irl Hirsch, also of the University of Washington.
The scientists had been distributing the editorial outside the conference's opening speech, which was originally scheduled to be delivered by Jay Bhattacharya, head of the National Institutes of Health under President Trump. Bhattacharya canceled at the last minute and was replaced by senior NIH official Rick Woychik.
The ejection drew immediate outrage from the diabetes research community. In the days that followed, the ADA initially defended its decision. A media team for the organization told MedPage Today that the scientists had been removed because they "demonstrated behavior not consistent with this code of conduct" for the conference.
That position shifted sharply Wednesday when ADA CEO Charles Henderson posted a video apology directed at the five researchers by name. "What transpired is not reflective of who I am, the values I hold, or the way I was raised," Henderson said. "I will work hard to bring our community back together to build on the progress we have collectively made for those affected by diabetes."
The April editorial at the center of the dispute had already been published in Diabetes Care before the conference began. Whether the five scientists will be reinstated for any remaining conference events was not addressed in Henderson's statement.
