# Comirnaty vs. Spikevax (brand names of vaccines) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [August 26, 2021, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549 "2021-08-26T05:44:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549/21 "2021-08-26T20:09:41Z")
I do wonder what the thought process was for Comirnaty. Co(vid)—m(i)RNA—ty(thank you!) “Sorta sounds like community. Eh, why not.” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549/22 "2021-08-26T21:21:51Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > It’s a bad name for at least two different reasons. And yet here we are talking about it. My gf works in advertising. She has a different perspective than some. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549/23 "2021-08-26T21:36:52Z")
It’s not like no one knew about the existence of the Pfizer vaccine before they heard the name. Talking about the name of an unknown product can be very useful advertising. But when the product is already known and now it’s sitting on the shelf next to a product with an objectively cooler name, it isn’t necessarily an advantage to be the object of ridicule. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549/24 "2021-08-26T21:41:30Z")
I can’t keep “comirnaty” in my mind. It’s a phonetically awkward word that doesn’t map onto English well. Compare to, say “covimirn,” which is still ugly but doesn’t sound alien. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549/25 "2021-08-26T21:55:49Z")
It’s so fucking weird because they could use the good PR as being the people who stopped the COVID pandemic (… eventually). They just need a catchy marketing name. And then they can tell people “by creating [marketing name], Pfizer saved millions of lives” but instead they come up with this awkward, bizarre name that no one is going to say except to make fun of it. I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549/26 "2021-08-26T22:07:41Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Best line (quoting someone else): > > > [@](#): > > > > Comirnaty drives a Volvo; Spikevax rides a Harley Remember when “the Internet” decided that if you wanted to be hip, Pfizer’s was the vaccine to get? > **[The Hot-Person Vaccine](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/04/pfizer-gang-and-sadness-vaccine-culture/618755/)** > > The internet has decided that Pfizer is significantly cooler than Moderna—but why? Sorry, Pfizer Gang - not only are you stuck with a name that sounds like an accusation from Cold War days\*, it (for the time being, anyway) hasn’t held effectiveness as well as the Moderna vaccine. \*“I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of the Comirnaty.” ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549/27 "2021-08-26T22:11:28Z")
It does sort of remind me of COMINTERN (communist international) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549/28 "2021-08-26T22:18:55Z")
> [@susan](#): > > > [@BigT](#): > > > > People don’t tend to refer to the brand names of vaccines. > > Usually I agree, but the brand/effect/side effect issue has been a big one with the anti-COVID vaccines. Yeah, but they refer to them by the manufacturer’s name, not the brand name of the medicine. We all just think of them as the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderns vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549/29 "2021-08-27T00:49:03Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > We all just think of them as the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderns vaccine. Sounds like someone who got the Kermehrnaty shot. You wouldn’t be saying that if you were team **Spikevax**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comirnaty-vs-spikevax-brand-names-of-vaccines/949549.md?page=1)