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Newsletter, February 2021 Pass it on... Please forward this newsletter to your friends, family and colleagues. Healthwatch Ealing is the health and social care champion for local residents. Join now and get involved! Picture: Georgian Architecture, Hillcrest In this Issue! Healthwatch Ealing Update 2 How Ealing is Tackling the Covid-19 Variant 3 Tests Recommended in Hanwell and West Ealing The Covid-19 Vaccine: Myths vs. Facts 4 Coronavirus (Covid-19) Vaccine Rollout 5 Frequently Asked Questions About the Vaccine Women’s Long Term Conditions Project 6 Census 2021 in Ealing – Everyone Counts! Speaking to Your GP – Guidance from the NHS 7 Environmental Public Research Opportunities Maternity and Coronavirus ... plus more! 020 3886 0830 www.healthwatchealing.org.uk [email protected] 45 St Mary's Road, London, W5 5RG Contact Us Twitter: @HW_Ealing Contact us for alternative formats Facebook: Healthwatch Ealing Healthwatch Ealing Update! Page 2 Healthwatch Ealing Update Healthwatch Webinar We hope that you are all continuing to keep safe in Thank you to all who have attended our first webinar the new year, and doing what is best for yourselves this year on Older People & Mental Health, we hope during this difficult time. We hope our online it was useful! All information, presentations and Coronavirus help page is useful for you, and your videos can be found on our website. More family, and includes links to guidance in multiple languages. View now on the website. More Next webinar: Covid-19: One Year On, 24th March 2021. The team at Healthwatch Ealing continue to work from home, but we are available to contact, via phone and email: 0203 8860 830 [email protected] We can arrange a Zoom call to help you out too! An opportunity to have a ‘real discussion’! This will be to reflect on the effects of the pandemic from YOUR point of view, and can include mental health, life as carer, changes in maternity services etc. We want to know what has changed in health and social care and how it can be improved. If you have any views on the Covid-19 vaccine, get Tell us about your experience of services in touch or sign up for the event! This newsletter includes vaccine information and guidance, Covid-19 information in community The welfare of carers “ languages, and updates on services. Please feel free to continue to let us know your is very important!” experiences with any health and social care services online here, or via email. This is an opportunity for Join us today and have your say! you to reflect on how access to services has changed, how this period has affected your health provisions and mental health, and whether The event is open to people from all ages from the information was clear. This will be a useful source boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & of information for services to help assess the Fulham. strengths and weaknesses of the pandemic response. We will be inviting guests from NHS and local public You can also follow us on Twitter @HWEaling for health to help answer any questions you may have, local news , events & NHS service updates. but we want this to be an opportunity for us to have a real discussion with you. Everyone welcome! To book or to find out more, visit The Covid vaccine was “ the website or contact the office. More well organised 0203 8860 830 .” [email protected] Join us today and have your say! Covid-19 Updates Page 3 How Ealing is Tackling the Covid-19 Variant Tests Recommended in Hanwell and West Ealing As you may well have seen on the news, Ealing The council and local NHS are asking residents living Council is responding to the detection of a case of and working in parts of Hanwell and West Ealing to the South African variant of Covid-19 that has been get a Covid-19 test. This applies whether they have identified in the West Ealing and Hanwell areas. Covid symptoms or not. Council Leader Julian Bell, in his latest video The advice comes after a local resident tested message says “The government has informed us that positive for the South African strain of the virus. The an individual in this area, who tested positive for resident has now made a full recovery. Coronavirus at the end of December, has now been There is currently no evidence that the South identified as having the South African variant. African strain of the virus caused more illness or that Covid-19 vaccines would not protect against it. There is some evidence that, like the UK variant, it could be passed on more easily. A walk-through mobile testing unit for people without symptoms has been set up at Deans Garden Car Park, Leeland Terrace, West Ealing W13 9DA. st Testing began on Monday 1 February. More Work from home if possible This individual had not travelled to South Africa or been in contact with anyone else who had. I’m pleased to say that they fully complied with the self- isolation requirements and have now made a full recovery. The council wants to reassure local residents that there is currently no evidence that the South African You can also book a test online variant is either more dangerous or more transmissible than the UK variant that represents the Distribution of Free Home Test Kits majority of cases in London currently. Public health support teams will be delivering free There is also no evidence that the vaccines that have home test kits to approximately 5,500 households in been approved for use in the UK won’t provide the W7 and W13 postcode areas. If you get a protection against the South African variant. positive result, you will be contacted by the national test and trace service and asked to self- People living in West Ealing and Hanwell should isolate for 10 days. More continue to work from home if possible and only leave the house for essential purposes, following the If you are not displaying symptoms, you can book a rules of the national lockdown. Please also continue free Covid-19 test online. More to follow the ‘hands, face, space’ rules whenever you are outside the home.” More Public Meeting about the Testing A public meeting on Covid-19 testing in Hanwell and The Practice nurse put rd “ West Ealing was held on Wednesday 3 February. me at ease!” The meeting, along with presentation slides can be viewed online. More Join us today and have your say! Covid-19 Updates Page 4 The Covid-19 Vaccine: Myths vs. Facts Myth: The vaccine includes a tracking device. Fact: A video shared thousands of times on Facebook As doses of the Covid-19 vaccine begin to make their makes false claims about the products of syringe way around the country, many people are excited to maker Apiject Systems of America, which has a have this first step in managing the spread of contract with the government to provide medical- Coronavirus. grade injection devices for vaccines. The company has an optional version of its product that contains a There has been much misinformation surrounding the microchip within the syringe label that helps vaccine and its development. When deciding whether providers confirm a vaccine dose’s origin. The chip to get the vaccine, it’s important to separate myths itself is not injected into the person getting the from facts. vaccine. Myth: The Covid-19 vaccine is unsafe because it was developed so quickly. Fact: The vaccine is proven to be safe and effective. Although it was developed in record time, it has gone through the same rigorous regulation process as every other vaccine, meeting all safety standards. No steps were skipped. Instead, we can thank the unprecedented worldwide collaboration and investment for the shorter timeframe on the development of the vaccine itself. The clinical trials and safety reviews actually took about the same amount of time as other vaccines. There is no ‘tracking device’ in the vaccine Myth: The Covid-19 vaccine has severe side effects such as allergic reactions. Fact: Some participants in the vaccine clinical trials did report side effects similar to those experienced with other vaccines, including muscle pain, chills and headache. And although extremely rare, people can have severe allergic reactions to ingredients used in a vaccine. That’s why experts recommend people with a history of severe allergic reactions — such as anaphylaxis — to the ingredients of the vaccine should not get the vaccination. The vaccine has been ‘rigorously tested’ Myth: The Covid-19 vaccine causes infertility in Myth: The Covid-19 vaccine will alter my DNA. women. Fact: The first vaccines granted emergency use Fact: Misinformation on social media suggests the authorisation contain messenger RNA (mRNA), which vaccine trains the body to attack syncytin-1, a instructs cells to make the “spike protein” found on protein in the placenta, which could lead to the new Coronavirus. When the immune system infertility in women. The truth is, there’s an amino recognises this protein, it builds an immune response acid sequence shared between the spike protein and by creating antibodies — teaching the body how to a placental protein; however, experts say it’s too protect against future infection. The mRNA never short to trigger an immune response and therefore enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where our doesn’t affect fertility. DNA (genetic material) is kept. More myths are addressed online. More Been waiting months “ British Islamic Medical Association Guidance The British Islamic Medical Association has also for talking therapy.” produced an extensive myth-busting guide, available Join us today and have your say! now on their website.