On Wednesday, a state council suspended the license of a Wisconsin pharmacist accused of spoiling more than 500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine because he considered it unsafe.
Steven Brandenburg was working at Advocate Aurora Health in Grafton, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Milwaukee, when he was arrested last month after an investigation of the 57 broken vials of the Modern vaccine. He was not criminally charged. A case status conference is scheduled for Tuesday.
The Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board said in its order that Brandenburg cannot practice pharmacy while the suspension is in effect. He said Brandenburg agreed to the action “in order to focus” on possible charges against him.
WISCONSIN PHARMACEUTICAL SUSPECTED OF ATTEMPTING TO SPILL COVID-19 VACCINES THINK THEY WOULD ALTER THE DNA, THE DOCS SAY
The charges are still pending against Steven Brandenburg, shown above.
(Ozaukee County Sheriff / AP)
Brandenburg’s lawyer, Jason Baltz, did not immediately respond to a phone message left Wednesday night by The Associated Press.
Lawyer Aurora Health Care, Director of the Medical Group Jeff Bahr, said Brandenburg admitted that he deliberately removed the bottles from the refrigeration at Grafton Medical Center.
One detective wrote in a likely statement that Brandenburg, 46, is an admitted conspiracy theorist and that he told investigators that he intentionally tried to ruin the vaccine because it could harm people by changing their DNA.
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The misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines came online with false claims circulating about vaccine ingredients and possible side effects.
One of the first false claims suggested that vaccines could alter DNA. The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines, as well as the Modern vaccine, depend on messenger RNA or mRNA, which is a relatively new technology used in vaccines that experts have been working on for years.
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MRNA vaccines help to train the immune system to identify the peak protein on the surface of the coronavirus and create an immune response. Experts said there is no truth to claims that vaccines can genetically modify humans.