An article published in the journal Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association, and authored by credible scientists in the field, begins with this condemnation of the policies of the NIH administration:
Just a year ago, in these very pages, we highlighted the many threats the current U.S. administration posed to the health of our nation. Since then, there have been actions by the administration that have caused grave health consequences, and their current approach will continue to do so. The numerous measles outbreaks and associated avoidable deaths have resulted in part from hyping disproven theories of harm rather than publicizing the effectiveness of the measles vaccine. Plugging the concept that diabetes is curable by “changing the food source” simply ignores the large body of work that has demonstrated that it is not merely a disease of poor nutrition and the immense challenges of reinventing the food industry. Peddling conspiracy theories represents failures by officials of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), whose primary goal is to protect our health. These two examples represent just two of the broken promises made by the current HHS leadership during their confirmation hearings. And, despite promising oversight, representatives on Capitol Hill have shirked their responsibility and have allowed the country to continue along misguided paths that even they recognized as irresponsible.
It goes on at considerable length, documenting all the failures of Jay Bhattacharya and RFK jr. Read the whole thing.
The authors were at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association handing out copies of that editorial to attendees, when the society administration called in uniformed security to kick them out of the meeting, and cancelled their registration.
The incident took place Friday morning at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association in New Orleans, shortly before Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, was scheduled to speak. An organizer announced just before Dr. Bhattacharya’s session that he would no longer be speaking; a senior adviser at the N.I.H. took his place.
The researchers were handing out copies of the editorial, recently published in the association’s flagship journal, which detailed the effects of N.I.H. cuts and other Trump administration actions on diabetes research and outcomes, when security staff asked them to step outside and tried to take away the papers, said Aaron Kelly, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota who was among the researchers escorted out. A video taken by MedPage Today, which first reported the news, shows a tense confrontation, including a man in uniform putting his hands on an expert.
Wow. That’s fascism in action, suppressing the free discussion of scientific assessment of the field. And this action was ordered by the officers of the American Diabetes Association!
Hours after he was removed, Dr. Kahn received an email from the American Diabetes Association stating that his behavior had violated the conference’s code of conduct.
“You were respectfully informed that distribution of materials was not permitted and given the opportunity to remain in the meeting if you stopped handing out the materials,” the email read. “When you continued the behavior, we had no choice but to remove you for the remainder of the meeting.”
The email went on to note that there are “a lot of logistics and security measures taken when a federal official is in attendance.” A spokesperson for the N.I.H. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Several of the researchers said they believed they were removed partly because the association feared repercussions from the Trump administration.
The order refusing to allow the distribution of papers is pure bullshit. It is common practice for researchers to bring along copies of their relevant papers and hand them out. I’ve been at poster sessions where the author brings in a small stand and has a stack of papers that people can take away. Why would you limit the dissemination of information at a meeting whose purpose is to disseminate information?
That it was a “security measure” is equally disingenuous. What was the guy going to do, rush the stage with his papers and slash Bhattacharya with vicious paper cuts?
This action by the American Diabetes Association was simply cowardice by the organizers of the conference. They should be ashamed. This is going to go in the history books as another example among many of chickenshit institutions caving to their own oppression by the Trump administration.
Dr. Kahn said that the editorial aimed to advance science.
“It is no longer enough to stand idly by or work behind the scenes with lawmakers,” the experts wrote in their editorial. “Moreover, it is no longer appropriate to fret about political backlash. Now is the time to recognize and fight to reverse the spiraling fall of the United States of America’s status as the foremost nation in health care innovation.”
