Formal emails to Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group surgeries, currently recruiting staff and volunteers to deliver vaccination, indicate that the vaccination would start in a matter of days, latest in 2-3 weeks.
As on 27 November, Harrow has 14,739 corona infection cases and 520 deaths. The first group to get vaccination are 50 plus.
It looks that by the end of March 2021, all people/eligible people in Harrow will be vaccinated.
When two doses per head, two or minimum one week apart, are administered, immunity kicks in from 28 days.
Harrow is likely to use Pfizer vaccine (good choice) injected at three locations, Harrow leisure centre, another hall in Cannon Park and one in South Harrow.
This vaccine is to be kept in ultra-low-temperature freezers, which are commercially available and can extend shelf life for up to six months or in the refrigeration units that are commonly available in hospitals. The vaccine can be stored for five days at refrigerated 2-8°C conditions.
New York based Pfizer have not released any samples of written materials provided to patients, so it is unclear what, if any, instructions patients could be given regarding the use of medicines to treat side effects following vaccination.
Another vaccine, quickly developed and much cheaper, is the one by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, which can be stored at room temperature. This is a genetically modified common cold virus that used to infect chimpanzees and therefore favoured by Boris Johnson. Politics of coronavirus continues!

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The BBC reports that women are being offered controversial “virginity tests” at British medical clinics.
The tests involve a vaginal examination to check if the hymen is intact – the intrusive tests are considered a violation of human rights by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations, which want to see them banned. They are not banned in Britain.
Harrow is one of the most diverse boroughs in the country with substantial Indian background population and the recent focus on the virginity tests has refreshed ugly memories of what happened in 1970s under Labour government.
An Indian woman who arrived at Heathrow on 24 January 1979 seeking entry as the fiancee of a man living in Southall was subjected to undergo a gynaecological examination ‘which may be vaginal if necessary’ on the instruction of an immigration officer, Runnymed Trust reports . Deputy Indian High Commissioner met an Under-secretary of State for the Foreign Office to register a formal protest.
A Harrow community leader Kanti Nagda MBE, now retired Harrow social worker who established the Sangat Community Centre in Harrow, remembers it well how local Indian community felt about the virginity tests under the watch of then home secretary Merlyn Rees who was educated and later taught at the Harrow Weald Grammar School, Harrow: “The community was shocked and devastated to find these most disgraceful virginity tests are carried out under a Labour home secretary – asking for any apology is in order” said Mr Nagda.
The home office then claimed that such tests helped them to identify women who attempted to enter the country illegally by establishing whether a woman is a bona fide fiancee.
This sparked global concern and investigative reporting:
The Telegraph reported: the government is facing calls for an official apology after documents showed that Asian women were subjected to humiliating “virginity tests” when they tried to move to Britain in the late 1970s.
At least 80 women from India and Pakistan hoping to emigrate to Britain to marry were intimately examined by immigration staff to “check their marital status”, according to confidential Home Office file.
The New York Times reported: the British government concealed how often it administered “virginity tests” to female immigrants hoping to enter the country in the 1970s on marriage visas.
The documents, unearthed by Marinella Marmo and Evan Smith, legal researchers from Flinders University in Australia, showed that the tests had been administered more than 80 times at the British Embassies in New Delhi and Mumbai – the extent of the practice was not clear until now.

Harrow East Labour members meeting on 24 November acknowledged that the Labour Party is in the business of supporting and helping the young, low income families and those battling unemployment.
The meeting also noted many (although not all) landlords in Wealdstone, Edgware, Stanmore, Queensbury and Harrow Weald are well off and have made – and are still making during these tough times – very large profits, month in month out – and that many have multiple properties.
Since April this year at least 90,063 people in the UK have been threatened with homelessness – and more than half of these have already lost their accommodation.
“COVID has hit Harrow very harshly and there are still lots of illegal evictions going on despite the supposed ban” Pamela Fitzpatrick, director Harrow Law Centre, previously observed.
The government came under increased pressure to reinstate a ban on evicting tenants during the England-wide coronavirus lockdown but while homeowners were offered mortgage payment holidays, the government has not reinstated the ban on tenant evictions, which expired in September.
To help ordinary working people in these times of emergency, the Labour meeting resolved to ‘call upon all local residential landlords, where it’s financially possible, who are charging the ‘market rate’, to lower their weekly and/or monthly rents by at least 25% for one year’.
“This will help tens of thousands of local residents, both mentally and financially, and will release much needed extra money into the local economy” the meeting deliberated.
Pamela Fitzpatrick, Harrow East Labour parliamentary candidate last general election, later said: “Fantastic time see Harrow East raising this important issue. The Hugh cost of rents is pushing people in Harrow into poverty and the savage cuts to benefits by the Tory government means local people are often having to make a choice between eating and paying the rent”.
Another motion agreed by the meeting, as has been done by a number of other Constituency Labour Parties (CLP), was  demanding the restoration of the Whip to Jeremy Corbyn MP.

Harrow’s share of the COVID Winter Grant (around £588K), is unreasonably less than Barnet (£987K) Brent (£1,142K) and Hillindgon (£831K).
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) grant, ring-fenced, is to enable to provide support to families with children, other vulnerable households and individuals from early December 2020 and covers the period until the end of March 2021.
In her letter, Clare Elliott, Head of Local Authority, Partnership, Engagement and Delivery division of The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said: “Funding will be dispersed according to the population of each authority, weighted by a function of the English Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD)”.
Harrow’s IMD has slightly improved over the years, but has pockets of serious deprivation. For example, two of Harrow’s Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) are amongst the 20% most deprived in England – the Woodlands and Cottesmore Estates in Stanmore Park ward and parts of the Headstone and Headstone Lane Estates in Hatch End ward.
Not sure if Harrow MPs have questioned the government calculations for the Harrow grant.
However, on the basis of the information by Harrow council corporate Director Alex Dewsnap, Harrow council looks to have good plans to use the COVID winter grant. Mr Dewsnap explained the dispersal of the grant:
“The council to fund through our schools’ voucher systems £3 per child on Free School Meals per day for the two-week break at Xmas and £3 per child for the 1-week February half-term.
“Additionally, we are also adding another £10 per child for the Xmas break. We have roughly 2,250 children eligible for FSM, so this works out at £288,750”.
He added: “We started the communications with schools last week on this so that the vouchers can be with parents before the term ends”.
The COVID grant could be used by giving in cash, vouchers and spending on buying/distributing food.
Mr Dewsnap informed that the council has been ‘working with Harrow Community Kitchen who has been central to the community hub food support through the HelpHarrow portal since March, and this service is funded until the end of March 2021’.
We tried but did not find nor received public information about who is/are running and managing the work of the Harrow Community Kitchen!

Many feel that Harrow council has generally failed to meaningfully recognise, support the Islamophobia awareness month campaign or to show any commitment to embed the awareness in the work of the council.
It is quite worrying to hear comments like: ‘frogs before Muslims, only in Harrow could this happen’ with reference to the council supported campaign ‘Harrow Go Green’, meaning that where fits, the council can indulge in campaigns of its choice.
Only on 23 November, following an early petition to the council and our article on 18th, Harrow council has now tweeted:
The council is not a charitable welfare organisation, providing face cream and tissues to the victims but is a service provider where they need to embed community concerns in its work in a meaningful way. It is highly concerning that the council either does not fully understand its role and functions or does not take these seriously.
In a broader sense, it is not only the Council’s response to Islamophobia that is concerning but how superficially and deceptively the council handles community matters.
For example, adopting Islamophobia paper definition or organising a webinar for few invited attendees  is good but not good enough to take practical steps like to map the campaign scope across the work of the council and integrate it in the council drive for equality.
Pity that Harrow council still lacks a firm public statement in this Islamophobia awareness month supporting the awareness campaign in clear terms, like: ‘This Council supports raising Islamophobia awareness with a firm commitment that the awareness gleaned would inform the council plans to tackle all forms of racism, prejudice and discrimination’ without worrying about any backlash from others!

A change.org petition to the Labour run Harrow council asks for specific inclusion of Islamophobia in the implementation of its motion for ‘commitment to fighting systemic racism’ (July 2020), and to put out a public statement in support of the Islamophobia Awareness Month campaign.
The petition is launched days after the Guardian reported a new poll which found that more than half of Muslim members of the Labour party do not trust Keir Starmer to tackle Islamophobia, with nearly the same proportion saying they do not have confidence in the party’s complaints process.
Early this year, members of the party’s own black and minority ethnic staff network expressed concerns that there is a perception within the party that some forms of racism are regarded as more serious than others.
In setting the background of the Harrow petition, the petition highlights:
“In the past year alone there has been an alarming increase of 92% of recorded Islamophobic hate crime.
“Just last month, local and national press reported that Kamaljit Chana, also a Harrow councillor, has been found guilty of religious discrimination and harassment in the workplace: (“I do not like Muslims” the Times reported, and that the tribunal also found that in a one-to-one meeting with Alipourbabaie in February 2017, Kamaljit Chana said: “Muslims are violent” and “Pakistani men are grooming our girls”.)
“Last November LBC reported “Anjana Patel, a councillor in Harrow, who tweeted angrily at Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, asking her “how are you going to help?” after Hindu girls in India were molested and converted to “her religion” (Islam). As if it was somehow Malala’s responsibility.”
The petition asks for the Harrow council to take immediate action against Islamophobia including fully and meaningfully recognising November as Islamophobia Awareness Month and taking part in the awareness campaign.
Regarding a private Zoom meeting with few selected attendees organised by the leader of the Harrow council to mark the Islamophobia campaign, the petition says:  “It is highly concerning and unacceptable that the council is not engaging with the local Muslim community about this serious issue. Why is the council not strongly deploring this hatred in all its forms on a public platform?”
Unbelievable that Islamophobia campaign is supported by some behind closed doors but not in public, especially by those who take some voters for granted.
Also concerning that more space has been provided to a small religious group in Harrow West that is less likely to rock Labour boat as they intend to put forward a number of their members for the councillorship through the Labour selection process!
Similarly, Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas has  written a patronising letter of support to some initially.
Conservative group on the council is far more open and positive.
“November is Islamophobia month.  We wish our friends in the Muslim communities well.  Harrow’s Conservative Group condemns all forms of racism, prejudice and discrimination and we stand together with all communities that make up the rich diversity of the citizens of Harrow” said the leader of the Conservative group Cllr Paul Osborn.

In a forthcoming presentation to the Harrow Health and Social Care Scrutiny, the NHS England and NHS Improvement update on the review of all of the cancer services provided by Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC).
The Centre is run by East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust and the services delivered from a site in North Middlesex managed by the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It is a stand alone cancer centre.
The services include outpatient chemotherapy, nuclear medicine, brachytherapy and haematology, provided by the Mount Vernon team, as well as radiotherapy and inpatient services.
Geographical Distribution of Patients shows that Harrow CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) has referred 3,254 patients to Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in the last three years.
As people live longer, more people with cancer are also living with other illnesses or conditions which require treatment alongside their cancer treatment. This cannot be done at MVCC and therefore they have arrangements with 16 other hospitals to provide the support that is not available at MVCC – this can cause problems when those other hospitals have their own priorities, such as anaesthetics support during the first covid peak. This also means patients have to travel much further for some treatment, for example patients requiring treatment for haematological malignancy travel to UCLH (University College London Hospitals).
The review is run by a Programme Board which is led by the Regional Director of Specialised Commissioning for NHS England in the East of England who are looking at the future clinical model of the services, including whether there is a single new cancer centre, or whether there is also a day hospital (ambulatory centre) on a second site, or even if there is a variation of one of those.
The clinical team is going to make a recommendation in December. They are not looking at the location of the services.
Click here to find out more about the review or how to let know your views.

Following the council motion for ‘commitment to fighting systemic racism’ (July 2020), Black Lives Matter protests, coupled with the Public Health England report evidencing the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on people from a BAME, the council plans to focus its work initially on race and ethnicity to support the council in its on-going commitment to being an anti-racism organisation.
According to the chief executive report before the forthcoming cabinet, the Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion strategy will have an initial focus on responding to the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter agenda and is intended to set the foundations for improving the experiences of all Harrow residents and staff.
The council takes notice that:  people from BAME backgrounds were up to twice as likely to die from Covid than people of white ethnicity, 7.5 times more likely to be homeless, are overrepresented in lower pay bands, and that absence and exclusions of children of black heritage in Harrow schools are above the national average.
In explaining why a change is needed, the report informs: “The death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minnesota, USA has highlighted deep inequalities and systemic racism that still exists in this country and other countries around the world and has left many of our staff and residents feeling hurt, scared and angry.
“It also comes at a time when we know that Harrow and people from Black, Asian and Multi Ethnic (BAME) groups have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19. We have reflected on the findings set out in the Public Health England report on the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 in the UK and discussed with trade unions, members and staff about how best to go forward.”
The programme of work that includes development of an Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Framework will be enhanced through working closely with a range of local agencies, statutory partners and the voluntary and community sector. The council has allocated £100,000 for this work.
No obvious support by Harrow MPs for such a positive initiative by the council!
Covid cases in Harrow:  20,572 and 156 deaths as at 8/11/2020

Harrow Labour division – apparently Gareth Thomas MP Harrow West constituency V Labour candidate Cllr Pamela Fitzpatrick Harrow East constituency  – became so obvious at the last general election where Gareth Thomas drained most Labour resources and Harrow East Labour election campaign was left to rely mostly on the out of borough resources for the campaign activities.
A similar situation existed at the 2017 general election when Navin Shah (Lab) was given only few weeks to canvass the constituency with the help of his friends and family (he didn’t win but significantly reduced sitting MP Bob Blackman’s majority).
After a local Labour party meeting, Cllr Pamela Fitzpatrick tweeted on 22 October:

Now following Jeremy Corbyn scenario, the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour Councillors (Cllr Pamela Fitzpatrick being a founder member) have called for Jeremy Corbyn to be reinstated to the Labour Party after he was suspended, which many suspect in a vindictive move,  after he issued a statement in response to the publication of an Equality and Human Rights Commission report.
“Jeremy Corbyn is a lifelong anti-racist campaigner who for decades has consistently offered – even when many others have too often stayed silent – his full and complete solidarity to ordinary working people in all their diversity.
“Jeremy Corbyn embodies the anti-racist struggle, and we are appalled that he has been suspended from the Labour Party. We call for him to be reinstated” said the socialist group.
As expected, a few Harrow Labour councillors, Gareth Thomas supporters, who were hardly near last Harrow East election campaign, toxically twitted supporting Jeremy Corbyn suspension!

TfL funding – government demands completely unacceptable

“I’m at the forefront of challenging the Government’s draconian demands and working closely with stakeholders like Age UK London and Transport for All” says Brent and Harrow GLA member Navin Shah.
“TfL now needs a long-term, sustainable funding arrangement to keep services running, but the Government have dragged their heels” he said.
As part of the negotiations for funding the Government has put forward the following key demands as the bargaining chip:

• Extend the Congestion Charge Zone to the North and South Circulars so that it covers 4 million more Londoners
• Fares increase above inflation
• Introduce a new council tax precept on Londoners which will substantially add to the council tax burden for struggling Londoners
• Scrap free travel for 11-18 year olds
• Reduce concessionary fares for 60 plus

“I find it disgraceful that Londoners and TfL are punished by government for acting responsibly and following the guidelines during the pandemic” said Navin Shah.
The London mayor Sadiq Khan has rejected and condemned the Government’s proposals at every opportunity.