Out of the four the J&J vaccine is the only traditional one. The other three use mRNA technology. Whether using a "viral vector" for delivery in the case of J&J vaccine is standard I don't know.
My understanding is that the Chinese sequenced the virus. Each of the companies then took the Chinese RNA sequence and synthethized it for their vaccines. None of the companies isolated the virus on their own.
Keep digging my dude. These are important questions to ask.
So I thought that too, when you say, "traditional..." Such as a deactivated polio virus being part of your polio vaccine. However, the Janssen J&J shot is, "replication-incompetent human adenovirus" - not a corona virus or COVID-19 virus. I think the virus is used as the means to gain entry to the cell, but the end result is that the cell is then generating the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) antigen exactly as if you had been injected with Moderna. A virus works by entering a cell and causing the cell to replicate virus through the introduction of RNA into the cell by the virus (or other means depending on the virus). The part which is left out of J&J and AZ is whether the adenovirus has been engineered to deliver the same nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) contained in the mRNA alternatives. My suspicion is that this is exactly the same which is evidenced by the overlap of these key phrases between the different vendors.
Moderna causes expression of "SARS-CoV-2 S antigen" <-- mRNA J&J causes expression of "SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) antigen" <-- viral vector
AZ, which is also viral vector does not have the word, "RNA," in their label. However, the AZ hints at this with, "vector encoding the S glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2." You will note that the italicized part is the exact phrase which Pfizer uses in their description of the protein which is caused to be expressed in their shot.
AZ and Pfizer describe the protein expressed word-for-word the same way. J&J and Moderna describe the protein expressed in nearly the same way Moderna and Pfizer describe the RNA molecule word-for-word the same way.
So where I'm going is that they're all the same. Exactly. Maybe different dosing, maybe different efficiency in uptake of the nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA), but it appears to me that they are all using nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA). I'm trying to confirm that.
Edit: I was hasty and did not read the entire article - J&J is a DNA vaccine.
Unlike the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which deliver fat-covered bits of genetic material into your cells, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses a “shell of a virus” to carry genetic material into your cells, said Gandhi. The “shell” is an adenovirus, which normally causes colds, but has been modified so that it can no longer replicate and make you sick.
You're right about the J&J vaccine not being a traditional vaccine, though I'm still not clear on the exact mechanism.
They use a modified adenovirus with coronavirus coating as the 'viral vector'. What it then does inside the cell is not clear. The artucles say that the viral vector doesn't have the ability to self-replicate but that doesn't mean it can't force the cell to manufacture pieces of itself.
So this gene therapy technology has been around for decades and is very promising for treating diseases that are otherwise untreatable. But to get the technology tested and accepted would take billions of dollars and possibly decades. Big pharma wants the profits sooner. Enter covid and they promise a vaccine in 9 month if they are given legal immunity. It's a chance to test their new technology on the whole population and also get people used to it, saving them many billions of dollars and accelerating the timetable by decades.
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