The Wisconsin pharmacist who faces felony charges for intentionally mishandling more than 500 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine apparently thought the world was “crashing down” and that the vaccine was unsafe.
Steven Brandenburg, 46, allegedly “formed this belief that (vaccines) were unsafe,” Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol said in a virtual court appearance Monday (January 4).
Court documents say that Brandenburg apparently believed the vaccines would mutate the patient’s DNA, the Associated Press reported Monday.
Officials arrested Brandenburg on New Year’s Eve (December 31), accusing him of several felonies in connection with the incident. Those include reckless endangerment, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property, according to the Associated Press. The doses that were tossed out in the incident were worth around $8,000 to $11,000, according to police.
An internal investigation at the Advocate Aurora Health facility in Grafton, outside of Milwaukee, initially showed that the incident happened because of “unintended human error.”
Dozens of vials of the vaccine were removed from a refrigerator on Christmas Day (December 25) and not immediately placed back inside to refrigerate overnight.
Later, however, Aurora Health found that Brandenburg “intentionally removed the vaccine from refrigeration,” a statement read. He was then fired.
Advocate Aurora Health Care Chief Medical Group Officer Jeff Bahr confirmed on December 31 that Brandenburg removed 57 vials containing enough doses for about 570 patients.
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