MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) – A Wisconsin pharmacist, convinced that the world is “collapsing”, told police he tried to destroy hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would move people’s DNA, according to court documents published months.
Police in Grafton, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee, arrested Aurora Health pharmacist Steven Brandenburg last week in an investigation into the 57 pampered ampoules of the Moderna vaccine, which officials say contain enough doses to inoculate more than 500 people. Taxes are pending.
“He expressed this belief that they are not sure,” Ozaukee County Attorney Adam Gerol said during a virtual hearing. He added that Brandenburg was upset because he was in the middle of his wife’s divorce, and an Aurora employee said Brandenburg took 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 intentionally tried to destroy the vaccine because it could injure people by changing his DNA.
Disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines has grown online, with false claims circulating about everything from vaccine ingredients to its possible side effects.
One of the first false claims suggested that vaccines could alter DNA. The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, as well as the Moderna 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 build the immune system to identify the spike protein on the surface of the coronavirus and to create an immune response. Experts say there is no truth in claims that vaccines can genetically alter humans.
Attorney Aurora, a nurse for the head of the medical group, Jeff Bahr, said Brandenburg acknowledged that he deliberately removed the vials from the refrigerator at Grafton Medical Center on Dec. 24 to Dec. 25, then returned them. out again on the night of December. .25 through Saturday.
A pharmacy technician discovered the bottles outside the refrigerator on December 26th. Bahr said Brandenburg initially said he removed the bottles to access other items in the refrigerator and that he had accidentally failed to replace them. The Modern vaccine is viable for 12 hours outside of refrigeration, so workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people before throwing away the rest. Police said the doses were between $ 8,000 and $ 11,000.
Bahr said the doses received by people on December 26 are almost useless. But Gerol said during the hearing that the vials were actually kept and that Moderna would have to test the doses to make sure they were ineffective before she could file charges.
Brandenburg’s lawyer, Jason Baltz, did not speak on the merits of the case during the hearing. Gerol dropped any charges, saying he must determine whether Brandenburg actually destroyed the doses.
Judge Paul Malloy ordered Brandenburg to have a $ 10,000 bail, provided he surrendered his firearms, did not work in health care and had no contact with Aurora employees.
Brandenburg has been in the process of divorcing his wife for eight years. The couple has two small children.
According to a statement his wife filed on December 30, the same day Brandenburg was arrested for handling the vaccine, he stopped at her home on Dec. 6 and threw away a water purifier and two supplies. for 30 days of food, telling her that the world was “collapsing” and she was in denial. He said the government was planning cyber attacks and would shut down the electricity grid.
She added that he was storing bulk food with weapons in rental units and that he 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.
The court’s online files show that the Brandenburg divorce lawyer withdrew from the case on December 28.
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Associated Press writer Doug Glass of Minneapolis contributed to this report.