So I had been chronicling the saga of the #NOLA5 (#NewOrleans5) and how the #AmericanDiabetesAssociation has been handling the situation. I have not written about the latest events, but the main issue is that despite promising an independent "arms-length" review of the event, the #ADA chose to use an internal committee (the Audit and Governance Committee) to review the event, generate a report, only to selectively share some conclusions of the report without making the full report available, then say there is new information available that needs to be reviewed. This is hardly an arms-length independent review.
Anyway, a call for a boycott of the ADA has started to make the rounds. I am reproducing the complete e-mail along with the links and attachments. Additional, you should note that the editorial board of Diabetes Care, the premier journal of the association, has decided to stop accepting new manuscripts. Manuscripts submitted prior to the deadline will supposedly be processed in the normal fashion, but I don't know how that's going to work when the boycott is asking people so suspend supporting association activities, including manuscript reviews. Initially, there was a notice of this when you visited the Diabetes Care website, but that notice is now gone. I am guessing the Association removed it since they are claiming Diabetes Care is open for business as usual.
I am providing the e-mail I received to give everyone a chance to read through things and make your own decision. There is one declaration for those of us who are professional members of the ADA and a second one for those of you who are not professional members, but supporters of the ADA. It is unfortunate this situation has gotten to this point, but the stakes are very high given our current environment and the fact that diabetes continues to be a significant global health issue.
The reproduced e-mail starts here:
Some background for those of you who may not be up to date on everything since what happened on Friday, June 5th, at ADA Scientific Sessions.1. In his video message on 10 June 2026 to members of the ADA, the Chief Executive Officer, Charles “Chuck” Henderson, promised an independent investigation into what transpired. A review has occurred, but it has not been independent. Rather, it has been conducted by a subcommittee of the ADA’s Board of Directors, the Audit and Governance Committee. This committee includes two members of the current Board of Directors, who reviewed activities as they were occurring around the time of Scientific Sessions. Thus, it is hard to understand how they could be truly unbiased.
2. On 1 September, the ADA put out a press release with comments about the committee’s report. This press release included quotes from Chuck Henderson and James Tai, Chair of the Board (attachment – “The American Diabetes Association Audit and Governance Committee Releases Independent Review 090126”). Simultaneously, in STAT, Chuck Henderson published an opinion piece (attachment – “Diabetes association CEO: What an independent review says happened at the ADA’s controversial June conference 090126”). The press release and opinion piece based on the report clearly did not take into account the interviews with the five who had their badges taken away. These interviews were held only a week before the report was discussed with the Board.
3. When the five people who were removed from the meeting asked for a copy of the report on which the press release of 1 September was based, we were told in an email from Chuck Henderson the following day that “I understand your interest in reviewing the full report being produced by the AGC. The report is confidential and will not be shared.” (attachment – “Henderson RE EXTERNAL Re ADAs AGC Independent Review Update 090226”).
4. On 6 September, ADA put out another press release that walked back the one from five days earlier (attachment – “ADA Board to Receive Additional Information from the Audit and Governance Committee on the Events Surrounding June Scientific Sessions | American Diabetes Association 090626”). This may well have been because there was further negative press coverage of the original press release.
5. During the course of all of this, the editors of Diabetes Care decided to publish a compendium of six opinion pieces and an editorial about what transpired around Scientific Sessions. As is customary, they were forwarded to ADA on July 2nd. On July 8th, ADA informed us they were censoring them and would not allow them to be published in Diabetes Care. Given this infringement on editorial independence, they were therefore placed on Zenodo, a preprint server https://zenodo.org/records/21300053; attachment – Community Voices NOLA 5 et al).Given the above, we, as editorial leadership of Diabetes Care, do not feel we can continue to serve on a daily basis as editors of the journal until such time as the ADA treats its professional members with respect and works for the good of people with diabetes.Every member of the Diabetes Care editorial team that has spoken to me has expressed disgust at what transpired on June 5th and subsequently. They have all asked what I planned to do. Now you know what Cheryl, John, Liz, and I are doing. The decision is yours. I would strongly encourage you to join this boycott and would be pleased to hear from you if you decide to do so.We will not be accepting any new submissions to Diabetes Care until such time as there is satisfactory resolution to this impasse. Importantly, as we do not feel it is fair to authors whose manuscripts are currently submitted, we plan to fully process these until they are either accepted or rejected. Thus, there will still be some work for you to do until these are all cleared.In solidarity, as we look forward to an ADA that truly represents the interests of its membership and people with diabetes."
No comments:
Post a Comment