The Health Canada-approved COVID-19 vaccines we all know today as Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca now have new names. The public health agency announced on Thursday that the three vaccines have been rebranded with new names that have more than a few people scratching their heads.
“The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will now be named Comirnaty, the Moderna vaccine will be named SpikeVax, and the AstraZeneca vaccine will be named Vaxzevria,” Health Canada said in a tweet. “These are only name changes. There are no changes to the vaccines themselves.”
Not everyone’s on board with the name changes, including the Toronto-based infectious diseases expert Dr. Isaac Bogoch. He fired back at Health Canada’s tweet and we’d be lying if we said it didn’t make us chuckle.
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I'm still going with Pfizer, Moderna, & AZ rather than [unpronounceable], the name of a D-division volleyball team, and Vaxixkckerkrzvia.
— Isaac Bogoch (@BogochIsaac) September 16, 2021
Some of the other tweets are just too good not to share. Here are the highlights:
— Don Falconer (@TheFalconer) September 16, 2021
Other rejected suggestions:
Jack, Janet, & Chrissy
Alvin, Simon, Theodore
Larry, Darryl, & Darryl
Earth, Wind, & Fire
Bacon, Lettuce, & Tomato
High 5zer, Funky Cold Moderna, & Astroganoff— Curious Kat (@CuriousCDNKat) September 16, 2021
I’m kind of stoked to tell people I was “Spike-Vaxxed.”
— chantzy (@chantz_y) September 16, 2021
Other people are raising more serious questions about the name change and don’t find it too amusing.
I don’t understand WHY this is being done, I fully support vaccines and wish everybody would get vaccinated…. but I assure you, whoever made the decision made a bad one. Antivaxxers are going to have a field day with this change, and that’s very sad.
— JB in CB (@Parapraxis1980) September 16, 2021
As others say, this just adds to the public confusion.
That aside, I get choosing ‘Spikevax’ but why ‘Comirnaty’??? It’s such a bland and unflattering tonguetwisting name that many will struggle to remember.
— Jono (@Ianatan_Duine) September 16, 2021
It is not in the public interest to author more confusion or reasons for conspiratorial thinking in these very charged & delicate moments. If the pharmas want new names, that’s their biz, but you’re in the biz of public health – meaning responsible communication. This isn’t that.
— Shannon Phillips (@SPhillipsAB) September 16, 2021
You might be wondering, what the heck does “Comirnaty” even mean? Health Canada told CBC that the name is a combination of “COVID-19, mRNA, community, and immunity.” We give them an A for effort.
