Police remove ADA leaders over anti-Trump research editorial at conference

Police removed five registered attendees from the American Diabetes Association’s annual Scientific Sessions in New Orleans after they handed out printed copies of a Diabetes Care editorial criticizing Trump administration actions that the authors said were undermining U.S. biomedical research.

Among those escorted out on Friday were Steven Kahn, the journal’s editor in chief, and former ADA president Desmond Schatz. MedPage Today reported that the group also included Aaron Kelly, Justin Ryder and Irl Hirsch, along with at least one other member, as they distributed copies outside a keynote session that had been expected to feature National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya.

The editorial at the center of the confrontation was published April 29, 2026, in Diabetes Care under the title “Misguided Brushes of a Pen Continue to Dismantle and Destroy Biomedical Research in the United States: We Can No Longer Afford Complacency and Fear. We Must All Act Now!” Its authors were Steven E. Kahn, Cheryl A.M. Anderson, John B. Buse and Elizabeth Selvin. Kahn is also editor in chief of Diabetes Care, and the paper said the views were the authors’ personal views and did not represent the American Diabetes Association or their employers.

The ADA said five registrants were removed for violating the conference code of conduct they agreed to when they registered. According to the association, attendees were told to stop distributing the material, refused, and were then escorted out by onsite event security. A video reviewed by MedPage Today showed an officer chest-bumping Kelly and a plainclothes security agent taking copies from Kahn. Kelly said the group was threatened with arrest and had its lanyards taken.

The clash exposed a deeper question about control over scientific speech at a major medical meeting. ADA’s reprints policy says printed article reprints are normally obtained through permissions channels and are available in quantities of 100 or more, suggesting the dispute was not over whether the editorial could exist, but over how it was being circulated inside the conference hall.

The episode landed at a politically charged moment for the meeting. Bhattacharya canceled his keynote at the last minute, and ADA said the change stemmed from a scheduling conflict involving a meeting with President Trump. Against that backdrop, a dispute over journal reprints became a public break over institutional authority, research politics and the limits of dissent inside diabetes medicine.