Seth Meyers on FDA approval of Comirnaty: ‘It already had a great name - Pfizer vaccine’
Seth Meyers
On Late Night, Seth Meyers celebrated the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19, which will have the official name “Comirnaty”. “This is amazing news, because it will hopefully convince more people to get vaccinated, and we should all be thrilled,” said Meyers.
“But also huge news that I guess we finally ran out of pharmaceutical names,” he added. “What’s up with Comirnaty? Did the approval catch Pfizer so off guard that they yelled out a name before they were ready?
“It already had a great name: Pfizer vaccine,” he continued. “I mean, I understand using a complicated name like Viberzi or Xifaxan for IBS drugs so you don’t have to ask your doctor about, I don’t know, ‘diarrhea-be-gone’.”
The name comes from the term “Covid-19 immunity”, with “mRNA”, the shot’s underlying technology, embedded in the middle, and is “meant to evoke the word community”.
“God, it’s like a riddle Tom Hanks would have to solve in the Da Vinci Code to find out the location of the Holy Grail,” Meyers said.
The Moderna vaccine, meanwhile, will be called “Spikevax”, which “sounds like a vaccine that protects you from Covid and gives you a mohawk, or one of those sketchy boner pills they have at the bodega”, Meyers joked. “Spikevax sounds like the drugs teens are using in a YA sci-fi series called, I don’t know, the
Nestworld Chronicles?
“This is huge news and will hopefully be super helpful in persuading more people to take the vaccine,” he added. “Of course, another thing that might be helpful would be getting Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican party, to tell his supporters to get it.”
Friends and allies of the former president have been “desperately trying to persuade him to promote the Covid vaccine to his supporters” for months, said Meyers, “and promotion is the one thing he should be good at. He is a salesman and a marketer, and it’s not like he needs full FDA approval to push a product.” Trump did, in his pre-Oval Office
days, sell a line of scam vitamins.
“So it should come as no surprise” that Trump’s comment in support of the vaccine at a rally in Alabama over the weekend – “I recommend take the vaccines! I did it, it’s good, take the vaccines” – was met with boos from the crowd.
“That really illustrates the core problem of the Trump movement: yes, his followers listen to him, but he also listens to them,” said Meyers. “In fact, he doesn’t just listen to them, he’s desperate for their approval and terrified of pissing them off.”
Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon also cheered the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday’s Tonight Show. “It’s about time! Their statement started with ‘hey sorry, just saw this,’” he joked.
“This is great news,” he added, “although if it didn’t get approved, I’m not really sure what the options were. Pfizer store credit?
“Must be weird, working at the FDA – one day you’re approving a life-saving vaccine, the next you’re approving new s’mores-flavored Oreos.”
Fallon poked fun at the name Comirnaty, which “sounds more like a drunk person trying to say ‘community’.”
Fallon also recapped the disastrous host search at the flagship trivia show Jeopardy! – on Friday, the show’s executive producer, Mike Richards, stepped down as the successor to the beloved late host Alex Trebek after a report by the Ringer resurfaced derogatory comments he made on his comedy podcast in 2013 and 2014 as well as a history of lawsuits and problematic behavior.
Richards had held the post for one day of filming and five episodes. “Come on, half the contestants last longer than he did,” Fallon mused.
Richards will remain as the show’s executive producer, which is “not a great look on his résumé”, Fallon joked. “It’s like having your jobs listed as ‘Wendy’s cashier, Wendy’s manager, Wendy’s cashier.’”