Portage, Michigan Made Pfizer Vaccine is the ‘Status Vax’ for COVID-19?

A vaccine is just a vaccine, right? Get the shots and get a higher level of protection against the COVID-19 pandemic. Is there really a difference between the vaccine (the Johnson and Johnson pause, notwithstanding)?

Some of those who have received two shots of Pfizer have been putting on airs over those with shots of 'lesser' vaccines. Is this just dumb internet-era flexing or is there something to it?

Pfizer as the Status Vax

Sure it was first. No one will forget the full-on media coverage when the first Fed-Ex and UPS reefer trucks with vax left the Pfizer plant in Portage, Michigan with the first-in-the-world vaccine. But where did this Status Vax idea come from?

Slate covered the Pfizer elites in a recent article. The author does indeed factor in the first-to-market as part of the gag.

This exchange, detailed in the article shows off the meme of Status Vax. You be the judge as to the tongue-in-cheekness

Last week, on a phone call with Tom Cox, a former representative in the Kansas state Legislature who now works in government relations, I told him I was soon to get my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

“Welcome to the ruling class,” he replied. Cox had also gotten the Pfizer shot, and with it, he has lately developed—facetiously, he swears—a sense of Pfizer superiority....

“One of my cousins got Moderna, and I was like, ‘That’s OK. We need a strong middle class. We can’t all be CEOs.’ ”

Some counter, that the joke takes it too far and downplays the importance of getting any vaccine rather than some people perhaps choosing to wait until their preferred brand is available.

The Case for Moderna as the Status Vax

What about Moderna? Just because it wasn't authorized first, is there any case to be made for this on as the 'status vax?' Some commentators on the Slate article on Facebook make the case from Dolly Parton's backing to the big names who received a Moderna jab.

Moderna was founded by the people that *invented and patented* the mRNA vaccine. Pfizer is just manufacturing and distributing a knockoff by BioNTech.

I feel like Moderna is the true status vax! It’s got Dolly singing “Vaccine” in her cold-shoulder vaccine top & matching mask

If shiny is what matters to you, remember Moderna is the shot Fauci himself took along with Kamala, as the NIH was involved- guessing one would rather be in with a shot overseen by Allergy and Immunological experts, seems relevant.

It's most likely that whichever shot you got is the one you will think is superior. And perhaps the true status is those who trusted and took the inoculation versus those who made other choices.