\u201cThis is a sentiment that is shared by some in this room,\u201d Kalyani said to applause from the hundreds of people gathered in the cavernous conference hall. She pressed him two other times, greeted each time with more clapping throughout the room.<\/p>\n
In response, Woychik laid the problem of grant funding at the feet of Congress and attributed painful cuts to grants, staff, and careers to \u201cchange.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all have to acknowledge that we\u2019re in a very changing environment. We have a new administration. We have new NIH directors. Jay has his own priorities,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re different than past directors\u2019 and, in fact, he was hired because he has different priorities. And so we just have to acknowledge that things are changing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unknown to the crowd, five ADA registrants had been escorted by local police out of the convention center earlier on Friday as they handed out copies of an editorial<\/a> published in ADA\u2019s Diabetes Care journal criticizing Trump administration changes to U.S. biomedical research, MedPage Today reported. Among them was Steven Kahn, lead author of the April 29 editorial titled \u201cMisguided 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!\u201d<\/p>\n In response, ADA said, \u201cThese attendees were escorted out by our onsite event security because they demonstrated behavior not consistent with this code of conduct. They were respectfully given the opportunity to cease this behavior and chose not to, which is why they were escorted out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In his speech, Woychik did not shy away from topics that have proved controversial: fluoride in drinking water, autism, and vaccines. He praised efforts to determine the root causes of chronic diseases, including explorations of the \u201cexposome\u201d to capture environmental and social influences in addition to genetics.<\/p>\n On autism, \u201cI think it\u2019s clear there is a wealth of genetics in autism, but there\u2019s also an increasingly recognized role for the environment,\u201d he said. Woychik did not relate autism to vaccines, a long-debunked connection embraced by Kennedy and other MAHA adherents, but he did endorse more study.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you read the MAHA Agenda, there\u2019s a lot of discussion about vaccines,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not arguing whether vaccines are good or bad or whether we should ban them. It\u2019s just developing a better sense of when you\u2019re treated with a vaccine, what are the biological responses, the molecular responses that happen as a consequence of the treatment with the vaccine?\u201d<\/p>\n During an epidemic, there is no option to test an individual\u2019s genotype and customize the dose and type of vaccine, he said, arguing instead for a better understanding of immune mechanisms that will prove \u201cincredibly important in how we actually deliver the vaccines.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n On fluoridation of the water supply, Woychik invoked the problem of reproducibility in scientific studies. He recalled reviewing the literature on how fluoride might potentially influence children\u2019s mental health when he was director of the NIEHS. A new study<\/a> of past research is underway.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere were 58 different publications that have fallen all over the place. Some of them have high risk of bias, and it\u2019s really difficult for scientists, much less judges and others in the community, to assess whether or not 7 parts per million is likely to cause an adverse health effect in children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On research in general, he said Bhattacharya has specific ideas on how to bring more rigor in terms of experimental design before it\u2019s actually started.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFrom our point of view on the implementation of the MAHA agenda, it\u2019s really about developing gold standard science. We\u2019re really getting to the heart of things. What are the root causes of diabetes? What are things we can be doing to prevent the onset? So that\u2019s what we\u2019re focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n In the question-and-answer portion of the session, Kalyani pressed Woychik on peer review<\/a> of scientific studies taking a backseat to political appointees\u2019 decisions and on redefining the roles of high-level officials who oversee reviews and research grant disbursement from the NIH<\/a>, again to long and loud applause.<\/p>\n \u201cThis administration\u2019s recently proposed rule challenges the basic freedom of scientific inquiry in this country which has led to the evolution of so many scientific discoveries and advancements for our field,\u201d Kalyani said about peer review. \u201cMany in our community think the administration\u2019s rule threatens our scientific future. Should this community be concerned, and if no, why? And how do you see NIH implementing this rule?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, again, I can\u2019t tell you what to do. It\u2019s open for public comment,\u201d he said about the proposal. \u201cAny and all people who may be interested in making a comment on this are free and open to provide comments.\u201d<\/p>\n In closing Woychik returned to the role of change.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s clear, but I\u2019m actually pretty excited about where we can be going,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are bumps in the road, there\u2019re changes that are happening. Change is never easy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS \u2014 A senior adviser to the leader of the National Institutes of Health opened his speech…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[16347,985,97,1343,1728],"class_list":["post-686991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-chronic-disease","tag-diabetes","tag-health","tag-policy","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/RWSS2026.jpg\")
<\/a>Rick Woychik at the American Diabetes Association conference.Phil McCarten\/ADA<\/p>\n