Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | October 20, 2025 | wbjournal.com With medical misinformation impeding their ability to deliver care, local providers have become frontline defenders of the truth BY MICA KANNER-MASCOLO WBJ Staff Writer L ia Spiliotes was one hour into her flight from Boston to Greece when she heard President Donald Trump link the use of Tylenol and its active ingredient acetaminophen during pregnancy to autism. Spiliotes, the president and CEO of Marlborough nonprofit Crossroads Con- tinuum, had received a text from her assistant and immediately watched the already viral Sept. 22 press conference. It was heinous, she said. As the leader of Crossroads, a school and services provider for children and young adults with autism, Spiliotes felt immediately compelled to make a statement, spending the next two hours of her flight draing a letter to the Crossroads community. "When leaders step in front of cam- eras and make sweeping claims about what 'causes' Autism, without solid evidence, it doesn't help families — it unsettles them," she wrote. "Parents Informing a misinformed world deserve better than that. ey deserve clear information, access to therapies and supports, and leaders who see the dignity and strengths of their children." roughout Central Mass., healthcare organizations, nonprofit leaders, and practitioners are working to combat a startling and unsettling rise in medical misinformation and disinformation. A 2025 report released by Boston-based nonprofit e Physicians Foundation found 86% of the more than 1,000+ physicians surveyed felt the incidence of medical mis- or disinformaiton had risen compared to five years ago. Spiliotes was far from alone in her response to Trump's claims about Tyle- nol. Regulatory agencies, researchers, and organizations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecolo- gists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Lia Spiliotes, president and CEO of Crossroads Con- tinuum Medicine came out with statements refuting Trump's claims. One of those was e Arc of Massachusetts, a Waltham-based human services provider for individuals with intellectual and development disabilities, whose CEO Maura Sullivan sent out a statement that day. "We must ground decisions related to public health in sound science and evidence, not on rhetoric or opinions lacking the support of research. e correlation between acetaminophen and autism has not been proven," she wrote. Protecting pregnant mothers "What was really concerning to me was simplifying something that is so complex, like autism, down to a simple message of 'Just don't take Tylenol, and we're going to eradicate autism," Sullivan said to WBJ. Mothers of children with autism typically carry a lot of guilt, wondering if they did something to cause their child's diagnosis, and Trump's narrative was a continuation of societal cycles of blam- ing and guilting them, she said. "Even when you know that the basis of autism is likely genetic, I think that there's enough room there that people are won- dering 'Where did I possibly go wrong?'" she said. Trump's claims don't stop at solely causing psychological distress; his advice is simply not medically sound, said Dr. Cherise Hamblin, an OB/GYN and medical director of UMass Memorial Health's doula program in Worcester. Fevers, which acetaminophen treats, are generally caused by infection as the body responds by raising its temperature as part of our immune response. ese infections in pregnant women can be anything from upper respiratory tract infection, to pilot nephritis to kidney infections, said Hamblin. ere should never be untreated fevers in pregnancy, she said. "Untreated fever can cause harm to both the patient and to the fetus," said Hamblin. Furthermore, acetaminophen is one of few over-the-counter pain management methods considered safe for pregnant women, and making a woman fear that option only makes pregnancy harder for her and her fetus. If a woman is in a con- stant state of pain, her heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones increase. "How a woman experiences preg- nancy impacts how their fetus develops. And as a society, we don't do such a great job of pregnancy being a positive and enjoyable experience for people," said Hamblin. "is kind of idea that women are just a vessel to produce more people … It is a part of that theme, that undercurrent of patriarchy." Along with its cascade of associated harms, medical misinformation like Trump's claims act as a distraction and let leaders off the hook from providing needed resources, Spiliotes said. "We're dealing with not just in my particular area right now, but just gen- erally in the environment. We're being tested and challenged every day by mis- and disinformation," she said. Spreading misinformation is lucrative Dr. Amin Sabet said he sees quite a bit of misinformation in his field. As an adult endocrinologist at UMass Memorial Health, his practice focuses on treating patients for obesity and for general endocrinology conditions like thyroid disease. One of the major areas of misinfor- mation in his work concerns GLP-1 medications, such as Ozempic. "One of the biggest forms of misinfor- mation around GLP-1 based medica- tions is that taking them is an easy way out, which couldn't be farther from the truth," said Sabet. is belief stems from a societal IMAGE | ADOBESTOCK.COM Dr. Amin Sabet, endocrinologist at UMass Memorial Health Maura Sullivan, CEO of The Arc of Massa- chusetts

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