Five days after five members of the American Diabetes Association were ushered out of its annual scientific sessions in New Orleans for handing out an editorial criticizing federal research cuts, ADA chief executive officer Charles Henderson on Wednesday apologized to the people expelled and to the broader diabetes community.
“First and foremost, I want to personally apologize to Dr. Stephen Kahn, Dr. Desmond Schatz, Dr. Aaron Kelly, Dr. Maureen Gannon, and Dr. Justin Ryder, who were escorted out and denied access to scientific sessions, regardless of the circumstances that led to those events,” Henderson said in the three-minute video. “I recognize the impact that experience had on each of you. I am deeply sorry for the hurt, frustration, and the pain that resulted.”
The editorial in question, published in one of ADA’s journals and labeled as the views of its authors and not the ADA, expressed concern about diminished funding and changes to the grant-making process at the National Institutes of Health. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya was originally the conference’s keynote speaker before backing out; in his place, NIH senior adviser Richard Woychik was speaking in the hall outside which copies of the editorial were being handed out.
