Steven Brandenburg, 46 a Wisconsin pharmacist who intentionally sabotaged 600 doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine by leaving it out of the refrigerator for more than two hours, also believes that the earth is flat and the sky is not real, according to The Daily Beast.
Brandenburg would share his beliefs with at least one co-worker at the Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, identified as Sarah Sticker, a pharmacy technician who found the box of vaccines during her early morning shift on December 26 and later reported the incident to a supervisor.
According to the FBI document, Sticker said “Brandenburg was very engaged in conspiracy theories.”
“Some of the conspiracy theories Brandenburg told Sticker about included: the earth is flat; the sky is not real, rather it is a shield put up by the Government to prevent individuals from seeing God; and Judgement Day is coming,” the document read.
“Brandenburg has explained to (the coworker) that he does not believe the coronavirus is real, and he thinks the vaccine is going to harm people,” the document read. “Brandenburg thinks that the vaccine is ‘microchipped’ and will turn off people’s birth control and make others infertile.”
Officials at Aurora Medical Center initially said they believed it was human error.
Bradenburg later confessed that he intentionally left the vaccines out of the refrigerator and “did so with the purpose of allowing the vaccine to be outside the temperature range so that it would not be effective.”
Authorities said 57 people received ineffective immunization doses as a result of Brandenburg’s conduct, since he placed the vaccines back inside the pharmacy refrigerator after damaging them.
He was arrested at the end of December and charged with “two counts of 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.”
He has pleaded guilty and could face up to 10 years in prison for each charge.
His license has been suspended and he is due back in court on Feb. 9.
