In this booking photo provided by the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, January 4, 2021 in Port Washington, Wis. Steven Brandenburg is shown. The Wisconsin pharmacist, accused of intentionally damaging hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine, convinced the world was “crashing”, told police he was trying to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed would mutate people’s DNA, according to court documents released Monday.
Ozaukee County Sheriff through AP
A Wisconsin pharmacist, convinced the world was “falling,” told police he was trying to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would mutate people’s DNA, according to court documents released Monday.
Grafton police, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee, arrested Aurora Health lawyer Steven Brandenburg’s pharmacist last week after an investigation into the 57 broken vials of the Modern Vaccine, which officials say they contained enough doses to inoculate more than 500 people. Charges are pending.
“He had formed this belief that they were unsure,” Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol said during a virtual hearing. He added that Brandenburg was upset because he was in the middle of divorcing his wife, and an Aurora employee said Brandenburg had taken a gun to work twice.
A detective wrote in a probable cause statement that Brandenburg, 46, is an admitted conspiracy theorist and told investigators he was intentionally trying to ruin the vaccine because it could hurt people by changing their DNA.
Disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines has increased in line with false claims circulating about everything from vaccine ingredients to their possible side effects.
One of the first false claims suggested that vaccines could alter DNA. The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, as well as the Modern vaccine, are based on messenger RNA or mRNA, which is a fairly new technology used in vaccines that experts have been working on for years. MRNA vaccines help train the immune system to identify the spike protein on the surface of the coronavirus and create an immune response. Experts have said there is no truth about claims that vaccines can genetically modify humans.
Attorney Aurora Health Care, head of medical group Jeff Bahr, has said Brandenburg admitted he deliberately removed the refrigeration vials at Grafton Medical Center on the night of Dec. 24-25, returned them and left them. leave again on the night of December 25 to Saturday.
A pharmacy technician discovered the vials out of the fridge on Dec. 26. Bahr said Brandenburg initially said he had removed the vials to access other items in the fridge and that he had accidentally not put them back on. The Modern vaccine is viable for 12 hours outside of refrigeration, so workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people before discarding the rest. Police said the rejected doses were worth between $ 8,000 and $ 11,000.
Bahr said the doses people received on Dec. 26 are virtually useless. But Gerol said during the hearing that the vials were preserved and that Moderna should test the doses to make sure they are ineffective before she can file charges.
Brandenburg lawyer Jason Baltz did not speak on the merits of the case during the hearing. Gerol suspended the filing of any charges, saying he has yet to determine whether Brandenburg actually destroyed the doses.
Judge Paul Malloy ordered a $ 10,000 bail to be held in Brandenburg on the condition that he hand over the 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 his wife filed on Dec. 30, the same day Brandenburg was arrested for handling the vaccine, he stopped at his home on Dec. 6 and left a water purifier and two food supplies for 30 days, telling her the world was “crashing” and she was in denial. He said the government was planning cyberattacks and would shut down the power grid.
He added that he stored food in bulk along with firearms in rental units and that he no longer felt safe around him. A judicial 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.