ADA CEO Apologizes to 5 Expelled Members After Research-Cuts Protest Sparks Backlash
Updated
Updated · STAT · Jun 10
ADA CEO Apologizes to 5 Expelled Members After Research-Cuts Protest Sparks Backlash
3 articles · Updated · STAT · Jun 10
Summary
Five days after police and security escorted out five scientists at the ADA meeting in New Orleans, CEO Charles Henderson apologized to them and the wider diabetes community in a three-minute video.
The members had been handing out an editorial from an ADA journal criticizing NIH funding cuts and grant-process changes while NIH senior adviser Richard Woychik spoke nearby after NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya withdrew as keynote speaker.
Henderson said the ADA would keep advocating for robust NIH funding and commissioned a review of Friday’s expulsions and the organization’s shifting weekend response, which had first defended the action and then cited IRS rules.
Reaction remained mixed: former ADA president John Buse called the apology a first step, committee chair Mark Atkinson said time will tell, and endocrinologist Jay Skyler said it was too little, too late.