Pharmacist charged in COVID-19 vaccine case to plead guilty
Source: Associated Press
Jan. 26, 2021
Updated: Jan. 26, 2021 5:57 p.m.
In this booking photo provided by the Ozaukee County Sheriff's Office Monday, Jan. 4, 2021 in Port Washington, Wis. Steven Brandenburg is shown. The Wisconsin pharmacist, accused of intentionally spoiling hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine, convinced the world was "crashing down" told police he tried to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he felt the shots would mutate people's DNA, according to court documents released Monday. (Ozaukee County Sheriff via AP)AP
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Wisconsin pharmacist accused of trying to spoil dozens of vials of COVID-19 vaccine is facing 20 years in prison after he agreed Tuesday to plead guilty in federal court, prosecutors said.
Steven Brandenburg, 46, of Grafton, is charged with two counts of attempting to tamper with consumer products, which is described in the plea deal as showing ”reckless disregard for the risk that another person will be placed in danger of death or bodily injury."
. . .
Police arrested Brandenburg on Dec. 31 as part of an investigation into how 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine were left for hours outside a refrigerator at Advocate Aurora Health in Grafton, a Milwaukee suburb. The vials contained enough vaccine to inoculate more than 500 people.
Detectives wrote in court documents that Brandenburg is an admitted conspiracy theorist who believed the vaccine would mutate recipients’ DNA. Experts have said there’s no truth to the claims that COVID-19 vaccines can genetically modify humans.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Pharmacist-charged-in-COVID-19-vaccine-case-to-15900176.php