How does the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine differ from mRNA?
What is the difference between how the Johnson & Johnson vaccine works and how the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines work?
The ultimate difference is the way the instructions are delivered. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use mRNA technology, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses the more traditional virus-based technology. mRNA is essentially a little piece of code that the vaccine delivers to your cells.
The code serves as an instruction manual for your immune system, teaching it to recognize the virus that causes COVID-19 and attack it, should it encounter the real thing. Instead of using mRNA, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses a disabled adenovirus to deliver the instructions.
May 3, 2021