The J&J (and AstraZeneca, I believe) are not traditional vaccines.
AFAIK, "traditional" vaccines involve injecting dead or neutralized versions of the virus that are enough like the original virus to cause your immune system to recognize the protein signature of the original virus.
The J&J vaccine uses the shell of a coronavirus, which attaches easily to your existing cells, but the payload has been modified so that instead of your cells producing copies of the virus, they produce protein spikes similar to SARS-CoV-2, and your immune system responds to that.
It's similar to the mRNA vaccines in that it causes your own cells to produce the proteins that stimulate your immune system, but the delivery mechanisms to the cells differ.
The J&J method has more human testing behind it, though, as it is the same as used by J&J's Ebola vaccine, which has been undergoing human trials for a few years. AFAIK, the mRNA-based vaccines have never been tested in humans before 2020.
I'm not making a judgement on which is safer here. All the COVID vaccines are relatively new technology, so I'm pretty apprehensive about getting one.
The J&J (and AstraZeneca, I believe) are not traditional vaccines.
AFAIK, "traditional" vaccines involve injecting dead or neutralized versions of the virus that are enough like the original virus to cause your immune system to recognize the protein signature of the original virus.
The J&J vaccine uses the shell of a coronavirus, which attaches easily to your existing cells, but the payload has been modified so that instead of your cells producing copies of the virus, they produce protein spikes similar to SARS-CoV-2, and your immune system responds to that.
It's similar to the mRNA vaccines in that it causes your own cells to produce the proteins that stimulate your immune system, but the delivery mechanisms to the cells differ.
The J&J method has more human testing behind it, though, as it is the same as used by J&J's Ebola vaccine, which has been undergoing human trials for a few years. AFAIK, the mRNA-based vaccines have never been tested in humans before 2020.
I'm not making a judgement on which is safer here. All the COVID vaccines are relatively new technology, so I'm pretty apprehensive about getting one.