Overview
- The removals, which occurred Friday, involved five registrants who were handing out printed copies of an editorial in Diabetes Care that criticized the President’s proposed $5 billion NIH cut and other HHS/NIH changes.
- Video widely circulated by MedPage Today shows a plainclothes security agent grabbing papers from an author and a local officer shoving a researcher as Louisiana State Police stood nearby.
- The American Diabetes Association said the attendees violated the conference code of conduct they agreed to at registration and defended keeping events strictly nonpartisan as a 501(c)(3) requirement.
- Prominent diabetes clinicians have demanded an apology and policy changes, posting open letters and a petition that argue the action amounted to censorship and has chilled journal and meeting activity.
- The dispute has immediate practical effects: an NIH director pulled out of a scheduled keynote, ADA editorial and staff meetings were reportedly disrupted, and the incident has intensified debate over how professional societies police speech at scientific meetings.