- A Wisconsin pharmacist who destroyed 57 vials of COVID-19 vaccine believed the virus was a hoax, court documents show.
- Steven Brandenburg told colleagues the earth is flat and that the sky is a government shield to stop people from seeing God, one of his associates told law enforcement.
- Brandenburg also told officers he was a conspiracy theorist, according to unsealed FBI documents.
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A Wisconsin pharmacist who deliberately sabotaged 57 vials with the Modern COVID-19 vaccine told a colleague that the earth is flat and that the air is a “shield fitted by the government to prevent individuals see God “, according to court documents.
Steven Brandenburg, who was a pharmacist at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin, was arrested on Dec. 31 after an investigation by his employer found that he had deliberately removed the bottles of the Moderna vaccine from a refrigerator of the clinic where he worked. He pleaded guilty on January 26.
The unsealed FBI search warrant, filed on January 13, first reported by The Daily Beast, showed that Brandenburg did not believe the virus was real.
Brandenburg, 46, said earlier at his workplace that he thought the vaccine would hurt people, implant it with microchips and cause infertility.
Federal authorities have found that Brandenburg’s conspiracy theories do not just stop at the vaccine.
“Brandenburg was very busy with conspiracy theories,” Sarah Sticker, who worked with Brandenburg at the Aurora Medical Center pharmacy as a technician, told law enforcement. Sticker was the one who found the uncooled doses of the Moderna vaccine on December 26 at around 3am.
Other theories Brandenburg told Sticker were that the earth is flat, that Judgment Day is approaching, and that the sky is a ‘shield set up by the government to prevent individuals from seeing God’, court records show.
In an interview with law enforcement officials recorded in the court documents, Brandenburg said he “has had an interest in conspiracy theories for the past seven years” and has read many conspiracy theory books.
On Dec. 30, Brandenburg admitted in an email to Aurora Health attorneys investigators that he had deliberately removed the vials from the refrigerator.
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“I did this with the aim of allowing the vaccine to be out of range so that it would not be effective,” he said, adding that the vaccine “would be harmful to individuals receiving it” and “the DNA of the recipient can change. “
Brandenburg, who is no longer working at the hospital, was charged with a Class A offense during a trial on Jan. 19 and could face up to nine months in prison, a $ 10,000 fine, or according to both penalties are imposed. .
He is due back in court on February 9.