REPORTING BACK TO MOLE VALLEY
IN THIS ISSUE:
  • Merry Christmas!
  • Defence and Security in 2021
  • Watch Out for Fraud This Christmas
  • Common COVID Questions Answered
24/12/2020
Happy Christmas!
It is extraordinary to think that just over a year ago we had a December General Election bringing a new Conservative Government, which at first sight had a healthy majority.

To manage to finally deliver Brexit, even speaking as an MP who voted Remain in the Referendum, was a considerable achievement. This was the only democratic option given that the country voted for Brexit in 2016 – and then again decisively in 2019.

At the time of writing, a trade deal with the EU is stumbling through its final hurdles. Assuming the EU 27 agree the negotiated deal we then have the further hurdle of the House of Commons where the Conservative majority may be less secure than it appears. The benefit, both immediate and for decades to come, of a free trade agreement with the EU is immeasurable. Add to that, the deals that we have achieved, or are on the brink of achieving, with many other key nations and trading groups and there is a huge measure of hope for our COVID battered economy. 

COVID, of course, will haunt us for some time to come and will be remembered in history books as a shockingly grim event for the whole world. Throughout the pandemic I and my small team have continued working, and it has been a titanic task. We have dealt with excess of 31,000 emails, countless letters (delivered on a weekly basis from the House of Commons) telephone messages and calls, texts and WhatsApps, as well as numerous discussions on the street - from behind our facemasks.

Fortunately, Treasury largesse in Mole Valley has saved countless businesses, jobs, and provided health facilities in this dangerous period. Vaccines are our hope. First Pfizer, with its complex storage requirements - hopefully to be followed with the more straightforward British produced Oxford vaccine.

It will take Mole Valley and the UK a long time to recover. For Mole Valley the important Events and Hospitality industries have been severely mauled as indeed have our retailers. Along with some of my Surrey MP colleagues I am currently seeking some further help, along the lines of that that went to Manchester, for our hospitality businesses. At the same time, we must all be conscious that we will have to pay back what we borrow. 

I know that as much as we all have been burdened by Lockdown and the ever shifting Tier System, most of us recognise that this has held back a potential tsunami of COVID cases until the vaccine can be fully deployed. 

For virtually everybody, this will be a strange Christmas. My household is normally packed to the gunnels with all the family including little children marvelling over the arrival of Father Christmas - to ensure this easy arrival I even had the chimney swept, but to no avail as we will have no children with this this year!

Your Westminster team of Annie, Julie, Sam and me wish you a Merry (LITTLE) Christmas and a much happier, safer New Year.
Defence & Security: What Will Matter in 2021?
2020 has been a challenging year for the UK in terms of defence and security. This is perhaps echoed by the recent loss of both James Bond (Sean Connery) and George Smiley (John le Carré) – two serious blows to the UK’s fictional security infrastructure!

In the real world, we in the UK are slowly becoming increasingly aware of the major threats we face from Russia and to an even greater extent China. Regrettably we also face less existential but still dangerous enemies in the form of North Korea and Iran. 

The Government is very much aware of these risks and so has allocated an additional £24 billion for vital defence spending. This may seem extravagant, but it is vital to remember that while we are not quite in a state of open war with these nations – we are certainly not at peace. We need only look at the continued incursions by Russian military aircraft into our airspace, ships into our waters and the ongoing round of state sponsored assassinations to see that this is not a benign actor on the world stage.  

Also of concern are the efforts both Russia and China are making to hack into our defence, industrial and scientific information. Alarmingly China appears to have taken this a step further and succeeded with actual human infiltration of many of our universities, businesses and financial firms. These attempts at information theft have also extended to the scientific bodies which undertook our COVID vaccine research. Russian attempts to use subterfuge to destabilise western political processes, both here and in the United States are well known.  

Ultimately, I believe it is China which will continue to pose the greatest danger in the years ahead. They already have the second largest economy in the world and their behaviour in Hong Kong and naked threats against Taiwan make it clear that the CCP has no intention of abiding by international norms. It should be a great cause for concern that this thuggish regime is so quickly expanding its influence around the world, particularly in Africa via the notorious ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ and many similar schemes.

It is to be hoped that 2021 will be a year in which Britain, Europe and United States as well as other democratic and concerned nations such as Japan and Australia unite in a serious and coherent way to counter rising Chinese power. Or, to put it in a semi-biblical way “Do under others, as they do unto you, but more so!” 
Watch Out for Fraud this Christmas

All Mole Valley has, along with the rest of the country, suffered from an increasing number of fraud and scams. Fortunately, most people do not fall prey to this heartless criminal activity. Regretfully as the criminals become more adept, more individuals and businesses are caught by these sophisticated frauds.

There is much advice on fraud protection from police, UK banks and many other sources.

One of the best and substantial guides is from NatWest for businesses but it also applies to individuals. I am sure NatWest will not be upset if you use this link:

https://natwestbusinesshub.com/articles/how-to-avoid-coronavirus-fraud?utm_source=Boost&utm_medium=email_dec&utm_campaign=WYSM_Boost

If you do get defrauded, please report to Surrey Police if this is a local fraud or to Action Fraud using this initial link: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
Across the very large volume of correspondence I have been dealing with in recent weeks, there have been several questions which are raised time and again. I felt it may be helpful to provide answers to these common questions here:

Who is eligible to receive the vaccine?
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has prioritised people for vaccination based on their risk of serious COVID-19 disease after SARS-CoV-2 infection. The priority order, confirmed on 2nd December and subject to logistical challenges in rollout, is as follows:
1. Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
2. All those 80 years of age and over; frontline health and social care workers
3. All those 75 years of age and over
4. All those 70 years of age and over; clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
5. All those 65 years of age and over
6. All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
7. All those 60 years of age and over
8. All those 55 years of age and over
9. All those 50 years of age and over
As more vaccine becomes available, it will be rolled out to those in each descending group.

Why are older people being prioritised over younger people who are out of the house working?
The priorities are based on reducing risk of harm. The immune system of older people differs from that of younger people and whilst the younger, working population are just as likely to become infected they are much, much less likely to become severely ill. An older person becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 is more likely to result in severe COVID-19 disease. The biggest risk of mortality from COVID-19 comes with age, even more so than underlying conditions such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes, for example, or being male or being in BAME groups. Each older generation has approximately 10 times the risk of dying from COVID-19 than the generation below it. When a vaccine has been shown to be effective in preventing disease in older people, then they should be the first to receive it as they are most at risk.

Do I need to get the vaccine if I have contracted COVID-19 and recovered?
Yes. There is a lot of uncertainty about how much immunity a person gains after natural infection. The levels of immunity that we can measure so far show a lot of individual variation - some people have very few antibodies after infection but these antibodies can be boosted by vaccination. We can’t assume that everyone who has had COVID-19 would have enough immunity to protect them. It is likely that, in a significant proportion of the population, the vaccine will induce more effective and longer lasting immunity than that induced by infection. Hence it is recommended that everyone take the vaccine so that, if your immunity after disease is absent or low, it can be boosted. 

Why should a young person take the vaccine when the risk of COVID-19 mortality is so low?
There is a huge variability in the symptoms and severity of COVID-19 disease between different people; from an infection with SARS-CoV-2 that doesn’t have any symptoms (asymptomatic infection) to severe COVID-19 disease resulting in hospitalisation and in some cases death. While younger people are usually at the less severe end of the spectrum this does not mean that the illness is not harmful to their health. In fact, there are many instances of long COVID that have blighted the lives of young people.  

In addition, although we don’t yet have a lot of evidence to support this, having the vaccine might stop you being able to be part of the chain of infection that spreads the virus. So, an added benefit might be to help reduce spread of the virus for everybody.
There is COVID-19 at my child’s school. Why aren’t my children being given the vaccine?
Initial vaccine testing was not done on children. Children are at extremely low risk of becoming severely ill with COVID-19 – they are at higher risk of being involved in a serious traffic accident than they are of ending up in hospital with Covid-19. So the benefits of vaccinating children are not yet clear. If the vaccine stops people from passing the infection to others, then vaccinating children in order to stop the spread of the virus will make a lot of sense.

Does the vaccine being developed so quickly mean that it is less safe than other vaccines?
No, it doesn’t. The reasons that this was developed so quickly do not include cutting corners on safety. There are a few reasons that enabled the speed in 2020:
1. Technology. These mRNA vaccines (in common with many of the approaches used for the other vaccine candidates) could be rapidly deployed for development and testing once the SARS-CoV-2 sequence became known, but this was actually done on the back of 10 years prior research using this platform. 
2. Scientists. A LOT of scientists contributed to this, working extra long hours to make it work and to assess the results.
3. Money. Normally raising money to develop a vaccine takes a long time. At each stage you have to stop and apply for more funding to carry out the next stage. Funding applications take a year or more. In 2020 for SARS-CoV-2, rapid investment of a lot of taxpayers’ money in many countries meant there weren’t the normal financial obstacles.
4. Environment. Sometimes you can develop a vaccine but can’t test it until there is an epidemic in progress. There was no problem in this regard.
5. Luck. Sometimes the target that is picked for vaccine studies, which is usually something seen on the outside of the virus, is not a good candidate for raising an immune response. The S protein target on SARS-CoV-2 that most vaccine companies picked to work with turns out to be an excellent target for activating the immune response.
6. Volunteer test subjects. Last but definitely not least. Tens of thousands of volunteers took part in the safety trials and the randomised control trials so recruiting volunteers was not an issue as it may be under normal circumstances.

Are there any side effects from the vaccine?
Yes, but these are generally mild. As with all vaccines, because you are stimulating the immune system you may experience some mild flu-like symptoms, but these are temporary. The most common reactions are fatigue, headache and pain at the injection site. Some people might also get chills, joint pain or fever. Younger people are more likely to get these reactions than older people.

Should people with allergies take the vaccine?
There are varying degrees of allergy. Some allergies, such as hay fever, are mild and do not pose a risk. Others are more dangerous and can lead to immediate anaphylactic shock. The vaccine should not be given to people who have a history of immediate-onset anaphylaxis to a vaccine, medicine or food. If you carry an EpiPen in case of allergic reaction, you have a history of immediate-onset anaphylaxis and so should discuss this with your doctor before getting the vaccine. All people who are vaccinated are asked not to leave immediately so that the health care professionals can check there is no anaphylaxis.

Who should not get the vaccine?
The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been tested on pregnant women or children so these groups should not be vaccinated, unless a child is at high risk of severe disease for some other reason. 

Immunocompromised people are at high risk so should get the vaccine. However, because their immune systems may not be able to make a response to vaccine they should still take other precautions against the disease.

Who was the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine tested on?
There were 43,448 people in the phase 3 clinical trial, 21,720 of whom had the COVID-19 vaccine and the rest were given a placebo injection. Of the COVID-19 vaccine recipients, 58% were aged between 16 and 55, 42% were aged over 55 (the oldest being 89). 35% were classified as obese, 17% were BAME, 51% were male. Volunteers were from Argentina (15%), Brazil (6%), South Africa (2%) and USA (77%). People characterised as high risk due to underlying conditions (e.g. autoimmunity, hypertension; diabetes; asthma; pulmonary, liver, or kidney disease) or due to high risk occupations were included. 

Are there risks that might have been missed in the trials, but will become apparent in the longer term?
All known risks have been checked, but there may be unknown risks. Reactions to vaccines usually happen very soon after vaccination – if you have the vaccine, you are asked to wait for a few minutes as a precaution. All the initial phase 1 safety trial volunteers have been followed up for at least 4 months and no major concerns have been raised. Safety monitoring, known as pharmacovigilance, is to be continued for 2 years after the vaccine is released – in the UK, this is carried out by the MHRA.

How are long term side effects tested/monitored?
Safety monitoring is to be continued for 2 years after the vaccine is released. There is a system in place to monitor and report adverse events immediately in a process known as pharmacovigilance. In the UK, this is carried out by the MHRA.

Do I still need to wear a mask or observe social distancing after receiving the vaccine?
Yes. We know the vaccine can protect people from getting sick from the disease COVID-19 that is caused by the viral infection. However, we do not yet know if it will stop you getting the viral infection so you could be an asymptomatic carrier who could pass the infection onto others who may be vulnerable.

Also, you will not be fully protected against the disease until the second dose of vaccine.

How do mRNA vaccines, such as the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, work?
The vaccine contains a segment of the SARS-CoV-2 virus genetic material that codes for a specific protein from the virus. In the case of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the specific code is for the spike protein from the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The genetic material in the vaccine is mRNA, which is used as instructions for the cell to make proteins. When the vaccine is given, our cells at the site of injection take up the mRNA and make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The mRNA is subsequently destroyed by the body. The spike protein is then recognised by the immune system and triggers a response. This response builds immune memory so your body can fight off SARS-CoV-2 immediately if you come across it in future. Please also see this infographic.

Will the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine still provide protection against the new strain of Coronavirus in the UK?
We think it will, but we don’t yet know this for a fact. Scientists are currently carrying out tests in the lab to check this out. We expect to find out more about this in the coming weeks.