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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