A pharmacist arrested for deliberately sabotaging more than 500 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in a Wisconsin hospital was “a licensed conspiracy theorist” who believed the vaccine could harm people and “alter their DNA”, so the police in Grafton, Wisconsin, where the man was employed.
Police said Steven Brandenburg, 46, who worked the night shift at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, twice removed a box of Moderna vaccine from the refrigerator for 12 hours, rendering it “unusable.” .
“Brandenburg admitted to having done this on purpose, knowing that it would reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine,” said police.
The attempt to destroy valuable doses of the vaccine came over the holidays as the state worked to quickly deliver vaccines to the health front. As of Saturday, the state had received 159,800 doses of vaccines and administered 64,657, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although the Moderna product is sometimes described as a “genetic” vaccine, it does not alter a person’s genes in any way.
The vials, which held 570 doses of vaccine and were valued at $ 8,000 to $ 12,000 according to prosecutors, were discovered on Dec. 26. Five days later, Mr Brandenburg was arrested for crimes of reckless endangerment and property damage, although prosecutors said Monday the charges could be dropped on a single misdemeanor if the vials, which have yet to be tested, are still usable.
Prosecutor Adam Gerol said Mr. Brandenburg was “quite cooperative and admitted everything he did”. He said that, according to employees, Mr. Brandenburg had already brought a gun to work twice.
In a decision signed on Monday, a family court temporarily granted his wife Gretchen Brandenburg sole custody of the two daughters of Mr Brandenburg and determined that the children were in “immediate danger of physical or mental harm”.
Ms. Brandenburg filed for divorce last June. At a hearing in July, her lawyer testified that his client was afraid of Mr. Brandenburg’s temper.
