Five Scientists, Including Diabetes Care Editor, Removed From ADA Meeting for Distributing Anti-Trump Editorial and Refusing to Stop

Five scientists were removed from the American Diabetes Association annual meeting in New Orleans on Friday after distributing reprints of an editorial published April 29 in the journal Diabetes Care. The editorial criticized the Trump administration’s policies on scientific research.

Those removed included Steven Kahn, professor of medicine at the University of Washington and editor-in-chief of Diabetes Care, who co-authored the editorial; former ADA president Desmond Schatz of the University of Florida, Gainesville; Aaron Kelly, pediatrics professor at the University of Minnesota; Justin Ryder of Northwestern University; and Irl Hirsch, also of the University of Washington.

The group was distributing the reprints outside a room where NIH director Jay Bhattacharya had been scheduled to speak. Bhattacharya cancelled his appearance, and another NIH official spoke instead. “They physically grabbed us, forced us out of the conference center, and now are telling us we can no longer attend this meeting,” Aaron Kelly told MedPage Today.

“They’re taking our lanyards. It really has come to this in America. Censorship is real. America needs to stand up. Scientists, stand up. ” The ADA confirmed to MedPage Today that five registered attendees had been removed.

The organization stated that the scientists had violated its code of conduct for conferences. “These attendees were escorted out by our onsite event security because they demonstrated behavior not consistent with this code of conduct,” the ADA media team said in a statement.