New Details Reveal Diabetes Ouster Controversy
▼ Summary
– Five scientists were removed from the ADA annual meeting for distributing an editorial criticizing the Trump administration’s attacks on scientific research.
– The ADA’s CEO issued a personal apology after public outcry over the June 5 incident.
– Deputy editors of Diabetes Care posted an editorial and seven articles to a preprint server after the ADA refused to publish them.
– The articles accuse ADA leadership of knowing the editorial would be handed out and setting up an ambush with venue security and police.
– The deputy editors state it is unacceptable for a medical society to restrict editorial freedom and that the ADA has not addressed the June 5 incident.
At the American Diabetes Association’s annual meeting in New Orleans on June 5, five prominent scientists were removed from the venue for distributing copies of an editorial published in the ADA’s own journal, Diabetes Care. The piece sharply criticized the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on scientific research. Public backlash followed, and the ADA’s CEO eventually issued a personal apology for the heavy-handed response. But new evidence suggests the organization has not fully addressed the underlying issues.
The deputy editors of Diabetes Care have now posted a preprint containing an editorial and seven accompanying opinion pieces , all compiled into a single PDF , that they claim the ADA has refused to publish. These documents reveal troubling new details, including an accusation that ADA leadership knew in advance that members would be handing out copies of the editorial and deliberately set up an ambush involving venue security and local police. This decision, the editors argue, may stem from lingering tensions connected to a session organized the previous year.
The deputy editors provided ADA leadership with the articles ahead of publication, offering them the opportunity to publish a simultaneous response. “The ADA’s response was to refuse to publish these articles,” they wrote. “We are speaking out because it is unusual and unacceptable for a medical society to work at cross purposes with its members and its editors. The ADA has already tried to restrict editorial freedom once before related to our raising awareness of what is happening in Washington, DC, and, in particular, with the dismantling of the National Institutes of Health.”
They continued: “A wrong occurred in New Orleans that the ADA has not addressed. There remain open questions surrounding the events of June 5th. It is because we wish to heal and come together following this difficult situation that we believe it is important that these articles be read and these voices heard.”
The incident highlights a broader struggle within professional medical organizations over how to balance institutional relationships with the imperative to defend scientific integrity and editorial independence.
(Source: Ars Technica)
