Better Health for Women

Better Health for Women in Virginia

            Isn’t it ironic? Ironic that a government that is supposed to be “of, by, and for the people” is now “of, by and for” big business and the billionaires who control them. Take women’s health in Virginia for example.

            The Commonwealth of Virginia has provided the pharmaceutical industry with one billion dollars in tax breaks to bring more than seven hundred jobs to Virginia. It also provides twenty million annually to subsidize research on how to produce pharmaceutical chemicals more cheaply. But industry should be paying to do that. Then, when asked to provide seven million dollars a year to conduct clinical trials to improve women’s and everyone’s health, Old Mother Virginia Hubbard finds her budgetary cupboard completely bare. It is stripped bare by subsidies to big industry with nothing left to investigate easily achievable cost-saving improvements in healthcare. As it subsidizes higher profits for billionaires, Virginia ignores researching existing low-cost, off-patent medicines and nutraceuticals that can provide significant clinical breakthroughs at less than 1% of the cost of new drug development. Whatever happened to “Keep the Big Boys - and Girls - Honest?” Who benefits? Who loses? We all know who benefits. But it is women and our entire healthcare system that loses. That hurts everyone.

            The United States and Virginia recently suffered its greatest pandemic loses in a century. 23,800 died of Covid-19 in Virginia. Many more were left suffering long-Covid because physicians failed to use broad-spectrum antiviral drugs the moment people became infected. They were not aware of them because no one had conducted the obvious research. So, too many people died. But epidemiologist do not believe Covid was “The Big One”. An H5N1 flu pandemic might kill many times that. Although scientists have discovered that sodium naproxen is the strongest drug to treat influenza, it remains untested because it is an off-patent NSAID drug. How incredibly irresponsible is that? Government inaction puts everyone’s life in danger if the next deadly pandemic is a highly pathogenic flu as most expect. That will cost the nation trillions. Yet, we fail to spend less than a million to conduct the required research on naproxen - Aleve. Who teaches pandemic math in the State Capitol? Obviously, no one. While Trump battles phantom nuclear weapons, Virgina fails to prepare for the real danger of killer pandemics.             

            Meanwhile, 500,000 women in Virginia currently sufferer symptom of leiomyomas - also known as myomas, uterine fibroids, or UFs. UFs are the leading cause of hysterectomies and the second or third leading causes of Cesarean section births, infertility, miscarriage, and premature birth that itself causes costly problems. If researchers can improve therapy for UFs, that would go a long way to improving overall maternal health. A thorough review of the scientific literature suggests that a combination of vitamin D3, curcumin, and selenium would significantly improve UF therapy. Controlled clinical trials could quickly prove that. But Virginia avoids taking the responsibility to conduct those. Evidently, women’s health is not worth it. Subsidies to the pharmaceutical industry are. It always seems to be someone else’s responsibility to conduct research that would not only improve health but also reduce healthcare cost by discovering improved, low-cost, safe, effective therapies. What other conditions should the Virginia Institute for Clinical Health Research prioritize? The list is long.

            Lupus and autoimmunity. Post-partum depression. Menopause. Menstrual pain. Autism. Sickle cell disease. Long Covid. Anemia. Sepsis. Bipolar disorder. Osteoporosis. Breast cancer. Uterine cancer. Leukemia. Epilepsy. AIDS. Infertility. Maternal health. Multiple sclerosis. Liver and kidney disease. Eczema. Psoriasis. RSV. Asthma. Alzheimer’s disease. Depression. Tuberculosis. Preventative and pandemic health. And dozens more.       

            But isn’t the NIH supposed to do this? No. The NIH is focused on new drug development - cutting edge science. The Virginia Institute for Clinical Health Research – VICHR – that would quickly become financially self-sustaining after a few years of annual support in the $7 million range, will focus on exactly what the NIH ignores. That is conducting clinical trials of currently approved safe and effective off-patent medicines and nutraceuticals that can be quickly and inexpensively tested to prove their benefit as complementary therapy to improve clinical best practices. Broad-spectrum antiviral NSAID drugs should be tested so we are never caught defenseless again when a novel virus emerges from the virosphere. Virginia will be prepared to test known antivirals from day one and will no longer be the victim of incompetence or agency capture at the federal level.

            As George Bush the Second said, “Fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice…. ehhh….ummm. Well, you just better not try to fool me twice.” Yes Virginia, there may not be a Santa Claus. But if you want to improve women’s health, and men’s health too – and make healthcare more affordable - you can do that by establishing VICHR at VCU. Seven million dollars annually is not too much to improve health outcomes for all Virginians.     

                                                                                                                                               Howard Armistead, IAS    5/25/2026