Milk in Nepal and India: the difference!

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 I have observed that whenever milk ferments when I am in India, the paneer or cottage cheese does not come out easily. Even if I boil it and add lime juice to it, the cheese formed is quite little and more powdery than cheesy.  But when the same happens in Nepal, the cheese formation is immediate, dense and cheesy. I do not have to do more efforts to get cottage cheese out of the milk in Nepal. What is the reason? I checked internet and found some factors that can affect the quality and amount of cheese  1. Freedom from pathogenic bacteria - Good cheese forms of milk is free from pathogenic bacteria. Differences between Nepali vs Indian panipuri  2. Different milk quality with different amounts of fats and proteins  3. Ultra-pasteurization can destroy vital enzymes and bacteria that are required for cheese formation  4. If temperature of milk is less when it ferments, cheese formation will be less.  5. If milk is rancid, it means it's fats are also br...
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FACTS! COVID-19 vaccine offers only 50% protection after first dose and 95% after the second dose!

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 It is a word of caution for people who think that once they have the COVID-19 vaccine, they are protected. Many health care workers and those who take the COVID-19 vaccine have tested positive for the virus days after the first of the two doses of the covid-19 vaccine. Matthew W, an ER nurse from California is one such vaccine who became ill after 6 days of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. What could be the reason for it?

Matthew W and his coronavirus history

On 18 December 2020, Matthew W, an ER nurse at two different local hospitals of California had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine along with his fellow health care workers. He had posted a message about it on his Facebook page. He had told later ABC 10News that his arm had felt sore for a day. But besides that, he got no other ill-effects of the vaccine.

Matthew W [Source: 10 News]

On Christmas Eve, Matthew, 45 completed his duty in a COVID-19 unit and then fell ill. First, he had chills and later severe muscle aches and fatigue. A day after Christmas, he drove up to the drive-by hospital testing center and got himself tested for COVID-19. His result came back as positive.

What experts say?

Dr. Christian Ramers is an infectious disease expert at the Family Health Centers of San Diego. He is also on the clinical advisory panel of the country’s national rollout program. He states:

"It's not unexpected at all. If you work through the numbers, this is exactly what we’d expect to happen if someone was exposed,"

He added that he is aware of several such cases in the local area who got infected around the same time that they received the first of the two vaccine dose of the vaccine. But he reveals that it is known that the protection from the vaccine is not immediate. Also, the cases might have got infected before they got the vaccine since the incubation period of the virus is around 10-14 days. Even if Matthew got the infection after the first vaccine dose, it is still at the time that the vaccine protection was not in. Also, even when the protection comes, it will not be full protection. Explaining more on it, he said:

"That first dose we think gives you somewhere around 50%, and you need that second dose to get up to 95%,"

"We know from the vaccine clinical trials that it’s going to take about 10 to 14 days for you to start to develop protection from the vaccine,"

Pfizer vaccine [Source: Pinterest]

Soda drinks and the word of caution! Read here

Dr. Christian states that one should not be over-optimistic of the ability of the vaccine on turning the pandemic around:

"You hear heath practitioners being very optimistic about it being the beginning of the end, but it’s going to be a slow roll, weeks to months as we roll out the vaccine," 

He reminds that handwashing, hand hygiene at all times, face masks, and other covid-19 protocols should be continued even after the vaccine.

The take-home messages

Matthew reveals that he is feeling better now and has only mild fatigue at the moment. But his condition was bad during Christmas time. So what does all this tell us?

1.      Do not think that the vaccine will give you full and immediate protection from the virus

2.      Your symptoms may still come if you are infected before, during, or sometime after taking the vaccine.

3.      The vaccine offers 50% protection after the first dose and 95% protection after the second dose administered three months later. This implies that in 5% of the vaccinees, there might be no protection even at the end of 2 doses.

4.      The vaccine starts showing some immune response only after 2-3 weeks of administration.

5.      Handwashing, hand hygiene, face masks, and other covid-19 protocols should be adhered to even after the vaccine is taken.

 

 

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