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A Wisconsin pharmacist who was convinced the world was “crashing” told police he was trying to destroy hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would alter people’s DNA, according to court documents Monday. has been announced.
Police in Grafton, about 20 kilometers north of Milwaukee, arrested Steven Brandenburg of lawyer Aurora Health last week after an investigation into the 57 spoiled bottles of the Moderna vaccine, which according to officials contain enough doses to more than 500 people te ent. Costs are pending.
“He thought they were unsafe,” Ozaukee District Attorney Adam Gerol said during a virtual trial. The prosecutor added that Brandenburg was upset because he divorced in the middle of his wife, and an Aurora employee said Brandenburg took a gun to work twice.
A detective wrote in a probable statement that Brandenburg, 46, was a licensed conspiracy theorist and that he told investigators he wanted to deliberately destroy the vaccine because it could hurt people by altering their DNA.
Incorrect information about the Covid-19 vaccines has increased online with false allegations spreading of everything from the vaccine’s ingredients to possible side effects.
One of the earliest false claims suggests that the vaccines may alter the DNA. The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine as well as the Moderna vaccine are dependent on messenger RNA or mRNA, which is a fairly new technology used in vaccines that experts have been working on for years.
Such vaccines help train the immune system to identify the protein on the surface of the coronavirus and create an immune response. Experts said there was no truth in the claims that the vaccines could genetically alter humans.
Jeff Bahr, the medical group officer for attorney Aurora Health Care, said Brandenburg admitted that he took the vials out of the refrigerator overnight at Dec. 24 to Dec. 25 in Grafton Medical Center, brought them back and left them out for the night. December 25 to Saturday.
A pharmacy technician discovered the bottles outside the refrigerator on December 26th.
Brandenburg’s attorney, Jason Baltz, did not speak during the trial about the merits of the case. Gerol continued to file any charges, saying he had yet to determine whether Brandenburg had actually destroyed the doses.
Judge Paul Malloy ordered Brandenburg to keep a $ 10,000 signature bond on condition that he surrender his firearms, not work in health care and have no contact with Aurora employees.
Brandenburg is divorcing his eight-year-old wife. The couple has two small children.
According to an affidavit submitted by Brandenburg’s wife, he visited her on December 6 and unloaded a water purifier and two supplies of thirty-day food, saying the world was ‘collapsing’.
He also said that the government is planning cyber attacks and will close the power network.
She added that he stored food in large quantities along with guns in rental units and that she no longer felt safe around him.