Pharmacist – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

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.

A pharmacist at a Wisconsin hospital was arrested and charged with deliberately failing to take more than 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine out of the refrigerator last week, the Grafton, Wisconsin Police Department said Thursday.

The hospital administered some of the doses before realizing they were spoiled, the hospital system said.

The pharmacist, a man the police did not name, was arrested on recommended charges of reckless safety endangering, adulteration of a prescription drug and criminal damage to property, all crimes. He is being held in Ozaukee County Jail.

It was not clear what his motive could have been. The Grafton Police Department is investigating the incident with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Food and Drug Administration.

The hospital system, Advocate Aurora Health, has evolved since it first found vaccines were taken out of the refrigerator overnight on Dec. 26.

At first it was said that the cans had been accidentally removed. On Wednesday it was said that the pharmacist had admitted to having removed the vials on purpose. On Thursday, Jeff Bahr, the president of Aurora Health Care Medical Group, said in a video call with reporters that the pharmacist admitted taking the vials out of the refrigerator on two consecutive nights – Christmas Eve and Christmas Day – and the hospital did done 57 of the doses given before determining how long they were at room temperature.

Dr. Bahr said there was no evidence that the pharmacist tampered with the vaccine other than taking it out of the refrigerator and that the pharmacist was no longer employed in the hospital system.

Dr. Bahr said the hospital had consulted with Moderna, the pharmaceutical company that made the vaccines, and was reassured that the tainted vaccines would not harm the people who received them. Because the mRNA molecules in the vaccine break apart quickly at room temperature, the doses became “less effective or ineffective,” said Dr. Bahr.

He said the 57 people who received the vaccine had been notified. He did not say what the hospital was up to about further doses for those people who are likely to be healthcare workers, despite Dr. Bahr did not specifically say so.

The hospital didn’t think the incident was due to negligence or gaps in its protocols for managing vaccine doses, said Dr. Bahr.

“It has become clear that this was a situation where a bad actor was involved as opposed to a bad trial,” he said.

Wisconsin saw a devastating surge in coronavirus cases in the fall and was at times the hardest hit state in the country relative to its population. Transmission has slowed down a bit since then, but the state is still reporting 39 new cases per 100,000 people per day. At least 5,195 Wisconsin residents have died.

As of Tuesday, the state had received 156,875 doses of vaccines and administered 47,157 doses, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health.