A 46-year-old former Wisconsin pharmacist agreed to plead guilty to two counts of attempted tampering on Wednesday after he was accused of deliberately leaving out vials of COVID-19 vaccine from a pharmacy refrigerator in an effort to spoil them.
According to the Department of Justice, Steven Brandenburg removed COVID-19 vaccine vials manufactured by Moderna from the pharmacy refrigerator in Grafton, Wisconsin, over the course of two evenings in December. The plea agreement states Brandenburg intended to render those vaccines “inert or ineffective” with his actions.
The incident occurred at Advocate Aurora Health Care and affected over 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, some of which were administered to hospital staffers (when officials believed it had been an accident and that they were still within the usability window).
“Tampering with vaccine doses in the midst of a global health crisis calls for a strong response, as reflected by the serious charges the United States has brought today,” said Bryan Boynton, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Division, in a statement on Wednesday. “The Department of Justice will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to ensure the public receives safe and effective vaccines.”
Brandenburg was fired from the hospital system back in late December. His two charges, “attempting to tamper with consumer products with reckless disregard for the risk that another person will be placed in danger of death or bodily injury,” each carry a maximum ten-year prison sentence.
Hospital officials have not yet determined whether the vaccines were actually spoiled, said the Department of Justice. Although the hospital system initially said those vaccines were discarded, Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol said earlier this month that the hospital statement had been walked back, reported Wisconsin Public Radio.
“Distributing the COVID-19 vaccine is critical to overcoming this pandemic, which continues to end lives and upend our economy,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew D. Krueger in a statement on Wednesday. “As these charges show, the Justice Department will pursue anyone—and especially any medical professional—who tampers with the vaccine.”
According to the plea agreement, “Brandenburg is skeptical of vaccines in general and the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine specifically, and he has similarly communicated those same beliefs to his co-workers at the Grafton Facility.” The Associated Press, citing court documents, previously reported that Brandenburg believed the COVID-19 vaccines were capable of mutating human DNA and were not safe to administer to humans.
The former pharmacist also allegedly believed the world was “crashing down,” and was hoarding food and guns in rental units to prepare, the Associated Press reported, citing an affidavit filed by his wife. The affidavit says his wife, who has been filing for divorce, felt unsafe around Brandenburg and that the man believed that the government was preparing a power-grid shutdown.
“He told me that if I didn’t understand by now that he is right and that the world is crashing down around us, I am in serious denial,” she said in an affidavit, reports The New York Times. “He continued to say that the government is planning cyberattacks and plans to shut down the power grid.”