On June 5th, during the early moments of the ADA Scientific Session, several ADA members were forcefully ejected from the meeting, threatened with arrest and had their attendance at the meeting revoked. Their "crime" was that they were passing out an editorial prepared and published by ADA members that appeared in Diabetes Care, an ADA publication, this month. The editorial was critical of government interference in science and the erosion of confidence as the Trump administration has undermined and politicized objective science and is poised to interfere with the approval process. In the main auditorium at the conference, Richard Woychick, PhD, senior advisor for the MAHA strategy to the NIH Director, Jay Bhattacharya (who had cancelled his scheduled appearance at the last minute) was preparing to speak. Dr. Woychick read his remarks from his phone, defending MAHA and the increasingly political oversight of and interference in scientific grant review and generally reassured the audience not to worry about the future of scientific research.

Unbeknownst to the audience, our colleagues were being physically removed from the meeting by the police. Later in the morning, the ADA cravenly doubled down, noting in a press release that: "Five registrants were removed from our Scientific Sessions for violating the conference code of conduct, which they agreed to during the registration process. Our conference code of conduct expects that all participants will conduct themselves in a professional and respectful manner. This ensures that the meeting remains safe, productive, and centered on advancing diabetes science." The encounter was recorded and there was no evidence of disruptive or disrespectful behavior, other than the actions of the conference security.

The attack on our scientific community is bad enough, but the seeming endorsement by the ADA of the current administration's approach to science and of its attacks on freedom of speech is unconscionable. ADA’s removal of members for the “crime” of distributing an editorial published in an ADA journal is unfathomable. ADA leadership owes an apology to those involved in this unfortunate incident and to the ADA membership at large and needs to commit to a policy of freedom of expression and scientific inquiry at all times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/well/ada-conference-diabetes-trump.html