MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A pharmacist in Wisconsin, who is convinced that the world was crashing, told police he wanted to destroy hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would mutate people’s DNA, according to court documents released Monday.
Police in Grafton, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee, told Adv. Aurora Health pharmacist Steven Brandenburg was arrested last week after an investigation into the 57 spoiled vials of the Moderna vaccine, which officials say contain enough doses to vaccinate more than 500 people. Costs are pending.
“He thought they were unsafe,” Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol said during a virtual hearing. He added that Brandenburg was upset because he and his wife were divorcing, and an Aurora employee said Brandenburg had taken a gun to work twice.
A detective writes in a probable cause that Brandenburg (46) is a licensed conspiracy theorist and that he told investigators that 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 about everything, from the ingredients of the vaccines to their possible side effects.
One of the earliest false allegations suggests that the vaccines may alter the DNA. The Pfizer and 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. MRNA vaccinations help train the immune system to identify the vein 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.
Aurora Health Care Attorney Chief Medical Officer Jeff Bahr said Brandenburg conceded that he deliberately took the vials out of the refrigerator at Grafton Medical Center on Dec. 24 to Dec. 25, holding them back again on the night of Dec. 25 to Saturday.
A pharmacist technician discovered the bottles outside the refrigerator on Dec. 26. Bahr said Brandenburg initially said he removed the vials to gain access to other items in the refrigerator, and did not accidentally put them back. The Modern vaccine is out of refrigeration for 12 hours, so workers used the vaccine to vaccinate 57 people before throwing away the rest. Police said the discards were worth between $ 8,000 and $ 11,000.
Bahr said the doses people received on Dec. 26 were useless. But during the trial, Gerol said the vials were being retained and that Moderna should test the doses to make sure they were ineffective before he could file charges.
Brandenburg’s attorney, Jason Baltz, did not speak during the trial about the merits of the case. Gerol lodged the complaint, saying he had yet to determine whether Brandenburg had destroyed the doses.
Judge Paul Malloy ordered Brandenburg to sign a $ 10,000 bond, hand over his firearms, not work in health care and have no contact with Aurora employees.
Brandenburg’s eight-year-old wife filed for divorce in June. The couple has two small children.
According to an affidavit his wife filed on Dec. 30, the same day Brandenburg was arrested during the vaccination, he stopped at her home on Dec. 6 and unloaded a water purifier and two 30-day food supplies and told her. that the world was “crashing” and that she was denied. He said the government was planning cyber attacks and would shut down the power grid.
She added that he stored food in large quantities along with guns in rental units and that she no longer felt safe around him. A court commissioner found Monday that Brandenburg’s children were in imminent danger and temporarily banned them from staying with him.
Online court records indicate that Brandenburg’s divorce lawyer withdrew from the case on December 28.
___
Associated Press author Doug Glass in Minneapolis contributed to this report.