It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
The accusations continue four days after security escorted five diabetes experts from an American Diabetes Association meeting in New Orleans for handing out copies of an editorial criticizing federal cuts to biomedical research. The purge of doctors and scientists has shocked those in the field, and ADA communications explaining it will only make matters worse, diabetes research and practice leaders told STAT.
The organization’s aggressive response to members protesting the Trump administration’s policies, until the conference’s original keynote speaker, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharyya, withdrew, alarmed longtime ADA members who are concerned not only about the organization’s integrity but also about diabetes care and science.
“To me, that was unthinkable,” says John Buse, former ADA president, co-author of the editorial, and editor of Diabetes Care, the ADA magazine in which it was published. “I didn’t think that someone from the ADA could have come up to me and said, ‘This is not okay, please stop,’ but it was shocking to me that the police were called.”
Over the next two days, the ADA issued a series of statements defending its actions, which only made matters worse, Beuss and other longtime ADA members said.
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“To further emphasize that and say this was a good decision because they were distributing material without permission and therefore not following the code of conduct, it just sounds like bullshit,” Busse said.
On Sunday, the ADA issued a second statement, citing IRS regulations governing 501(c)(3) organizations and saying, “ADA has safeguards in place to ensure compliance with all IRS regulations. This includes maintaining a strictly nonpartisan environment at all organizational events and functions.”
The IRS prohibits 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations from political activities, and leaders of these organizations are not allowed to “make partisan comments in the organization’s official publications or at the organization’s official events.” However, the Internal Revenue Service says on its website that leaders are not prevented from expressing their opinions on political issues when speaking as individuals. The editorial in question clearly states that it represents the author’s personal views and not the views of the ADA.
STAT repeatedly reached out to ADA officials for comment, but did not receive a statement by the time of publication. The NIH issued a statement Monday saying it referred questions to law enforcement officials and was not involved in decisions about Friday’s actions.
Jeffrey Fryer, a former dean of Harvard Medical School and an ADA member who has attended the organization’s scientific sessions for 50 years, said the situation is “going from bad to worse” as editorial writers and other ADA attendees are ejected and told they can’t return.
“I think 99.9 percent of all diabetes experts, whether they’re clinicians or researchers or whatever, think this is a terrible mistake,” Fryer told STAT. “Then ADA leadership had an opportunity to correct it, apologize and say that was not what they meant, they’re sorry, and they didn’t do it.”
Busse, Fryer and others who spoke to STAT on condition of anonymity said they believed the ADA was likely preparing some form of dissent related to Bhattacharya’s speech. The day before his keynote speech was scheduled to take place, Mr. Bhattacharya canceled the meeting, citing a meeting with President Trump. Senior Advisor Richard Wojcik spoke for an audience that applauded when criticism of NIH funding cuts was aired.
Mr. Fryer was not present, so he could only assume that the ADA was alert and was able to act quickly when the group began distributing printouts of the editorial before private security could expel them.
“I don’t know about this. I just imagine that if Mr. Jay Bhattacharya had not agreed to come and given certain assurances about the heightened reaction to the disruption, this would not have happened,” Fryer said. He has also written an explanatory article about NIH funding in jeopardy. “Someone on the scene incorrectly concluded that this was a mess that deserved closure.”
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Jay Schuyler, an endocrinologist at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, said when the association announced that it had asked the NIH director to give opening remarks, ADA members asked for someone to talk about what the NIH has done related to funding diabetes and other medical research, but the ADA declined. Although he was not surprised that the late addition to the conference schedule was not made, he was shocked by the ADA’s explanation and what happened outside the venue where Wojcik was speaking.
Schuyler read to STAT an email he sent to ADA President Charles Henderson and Scientific Session Planning Chair Mark Atkinson.
“You should be ashamed of the disgusting emails defending the actions of law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement and law enforcement agencies have no way of knowing about the alleged long-standing policy against distributing materials unless the ADA directs them to act,” the email said. “This is the 55th ADA meeting and I have never heard of such a policy. … Both should resign.”
The next day, Atkinson resigned, along with President-elect Jennifer Green, a professor of medicine at Duke Clinical Research Institute, in what Schuyler called a significant loss to the ADA. These movements and initial events were first reported by MedPage Today. The reason for his resignation was not disclosed.
Even if the ADA had hoped to overturn the editorial’s statements, it failed, Busse said.
“If they hadn’t done anything, no one would have seen the article. I think it had about 300 page views before it happened,” he said. “As of last night, this completely unknown paper has become the 50th most cited and most viewed paper worldwide, out of 300,000 papers published in the last month.”
An open letter on change.org, launched by prominent diabetes doctor and scientist David Nathan, has gathered 5,900 signatures.
What’s next?
“The bottom line is that my personal view is that a public apology from ADA leadership is needed for a mistake that was unintentional but spiraled out of control,” Fryer said. “Or the current leadership needs to be removed and replaced.”
Bousse said that while professional organizations are not the only ones taking politics into account, that does not preclude discussion that includes alternative views.
“I think everyone in the United States is concerned about retaliation from the Trump administration,” he said. “It’s about standing up for what’s right.”
