Comirnaty was the subject of some name calling on social media.
Well, it’s official. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now officially approved the first Covid-19 vaccine for people 16 years and older, as Jemima McEvoy reported for Forbes. People have been referring to the vaccine as the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. But now that it’s progressed from the emergency use authorization stage, you may be seeing more of it’s brand name. And that brand name is, drum roll please, Comirnaty. What’s that? Co-ed manatees? Nadia Comăneci? Vormir is nasty? Covfefe? No, Comirnaty. So, if you’ve been thinking of naming your kid “Comirnaty,” you may want to re-consider. After all, there’s a reason why you might not name your kid “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups” or “iPhone.” Those names are already taken by other products, and it could be a bit confusing when someone says, “your iPhone needs an update” You may thinking, “Comirnaty is such an obvious name for the Covid-19 vaccine.” But, if you aren’t, you may be wondering how this name arose? Did someone accidentally hit himself or herself in the genitals and say “Comirnaty?” Or was this a case of a little too much thought: Well, according to Beth Snyder Bulik writing for Fierce Pharma, the Brand Institute helped come up with the name. The name uses the prefix “co-” to represent community, the “mirna” for mRNA, and the “-ty” as a nod towards the end of both “community” and “immunity.” So the name is supposed to make you think about the technology behind the vaccine, immunity, and community at the same time, rather than one manatee saying to another, “come on, manatee, let’s go party.” Thus, the correct phonetic pronunciation of this new brand name will be koe-mir’-na-tee.
