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Comment by Ericson2314 | Hacker News Reader

Well this seems stupid.

The thing I'm trying to understand is whether Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca are meaningfully different. All the media just assumes they are (until proven equivalent), but is the genetic code publicly known so we can compare? The Pfizer and Moderna ones are extremely similar. Now, I imagine the adenovirus ones have an order of magnitude more genetic material, but is the code publicly know to compare?

As far as I can tell, they both should have been approved ages ago, if only to depress prices and get more redundancy.

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J&J uses a very rare human adenovirus, AZ uses a more common chimpanzee adenovirus. J&J also has the so-called 2PP modification on the Spike protein compared with the AZ vaccine. Good writeup here: https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/genetic-code-of-covid-19-v...

Thanks! I greatly enjoyed https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source... before, and somehow missed the same author had one on the adenovirus vaccines.

One difference is that J&J has been tested for only one shot and AZ is tested for two shots. Also the amount of vaccin you get shot in your arm could be different. The clotting incidents between the two are certainly different, AZ has much more at the moment.

Does the fact that they're made in the same lab mean anything when it comes to these side effects? Are the fillers/stabilizing materials the same?

Yes, they are meaningfully different. For one, Pfizer and Moderna are mRNA vaccines, while J&J and AZ are not.

That’s not the difference the parent is asking about. He’s asking if the adenovirus based vaccines available are meaningfully different.

Reaching beyond the parent’s words, both AstraZeneca and J&J have now had issues with blood clots. If it’s a similar formulation then perhaps you’ve found something and Adenovirus vaccines with a different formulation are unaffected. If they’re very different then perhaps other variations of Adenovirus vaccines need more attention.

The mechanism of delivery isn't a meaningful difference? Okay, if you just want to ignore half of the equation be my guest.

They are comparing jj and astro zeneca, both use adenovirus delivery. Albeit very different variants.

The parent comment wondered

> whether Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca are meaningfully different

Grammatically, that asks about the difference between J&J & AZ. Your response instead compared them collectively to the mRNA vaccines, rather than comparing them to each other. Thus the response saying "[t]hat’s not the difference the parent is asking about."

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