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PAM FRAMPTON: Censorship attempt fails as attendees ousted from U.S. conference win the day

A handful of attendees were ousted at the American Diabetes Association's meeting for disagreeing with Trump

Medical conferences are expected to be hotbeds of debate and discussion, places where information is disseminated and ideas exchanged.

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But that very behaviour got a handful of attendees ousted at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) annual meeting on June 5 in New Orleans as they attempted to hand out copies of an April 29 commentary published in the ADA’s own medical journal, Diabetes Care.

What was it about the offending article that led to the police being called to expel top scientists?

Why, criticism of the Trump administration’s ham-fisted approach to medical research and funding, naturally.

Trump decisions impacting health, research

One of the attendees who was summarily ejected from the convention centre and threatened with arrest was Steven Kahn, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington and the editor-in-chief at Diabetes Care, who co-wrote the article.

“I grew up in apartheid (South) Africa, where muzzling of speech and encroachment on academic freedom were the norm,” Kahn wrote on the social media platform X on June 6. “I came to the US to pursue a career in science. I never thought that at this stage of my career, I would ever experience my youth........

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