Seeing off Ammu and Mithun.

A new study in the UK has found that Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccines, manufactured and administered in India under the trade name Covishield, offers protection which may last a whole lifetime.

As per the study, the vaccine does not just generate antibodies against the SARS-COV-2 virus but also created "Training camps" in the body, to enable search-and-destroy T-cells to even kill new variants. It could possibly keep making them for life.

"The T-cells that come from these cellular training camps appear to have a very high level of fitness", said researcher Prof Burkhard Ludewig of Cantonal Hospital in Switzerland. He continues, "Adenoviruses have co-evolved with humans over a very long time and learned a lot about the human immune system in the process".

As per the study's findings, adenoviruses have the ability to penetrate long-lived tissue cells. These cells, called fibroblastic reticular cells, can act as T-cell "training grounds".

The new findings add weight to recent studies that showed the Astra Zeneca Vaccine as more effective at generating the T-cells in comparison to Pfizer and Moderna which are both mRNA vaccines.

As per Prof Paul Klenermann, of Oxford's Nuffield department of Medicine, said, "Millions of people have received adenovirus vaccines around the world. The ultimate goal with these vaccines is the induction of long-term immune system protection using both antibodies and T-cell. This research helps us to understand more on the process of vaccination and why the effects on killer T-cells are so prolonged".

Tailpiece.

Got up at 6, the chores and was ready by a quarter to 8. I'd placed my offering to the crows, on our courtyard, as today's the 30th Remembrance Day of my grandmother, Mrs PN Panicker, as per the Malayalam calendar.

Ammu and Mithun, in the meanwhile, had gone for a darshan at the Mammiyoor Siva kshetram.   

Lekha, Ammu and Mithun went to Thrissur town and had carried out a lot of work that were pending. George was the sa'arthi. They returned by a half past 2 and we, then, settled down for a quiet lunch

They were seen off on the Payyannur bus by a quarter to 12, at the Mammiyoor junction. To make matters worse, it was raining cats and dogs. Suraaj had dropped me back at home.

And it continued to pour as we tucked ourselves into bed!