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MILWAUKEE – A state council on Wednesday suspended the license of a Wisconsin pharmacist accused of ruining more than 500 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine because he believed it was dangerous.
Steven Brandenburg was working at Advocate Aurora Health in Grafton, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee, when he was arrested last month following an investigation into the 57 spoiled vials of Moderna vaccine. He has not been criminally charged. A 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 place. He said Brandenburg agreed to the action “in order to focus” on possible charges against him.
Brandenburg attorney Jason Baltz did not immediately respond to a phone message left by The Associated Press Wednesday night.
Aurora Health Care lawyer medical group director Jeff Bahr said Brandenburg admitted to deliberately removing the vials from the refrigeration at Grafton Medical Center.
A detective wrote in a probable cause statement that Brandenburg, 46, is a recognized conspiracy theorist and told investigators he intentionally tried to ruin the vaccine because it could hurt people by modifying their DNA.
Misinformation around Covid-19 vaccines has surged 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 vaccine and BioNTech as well as the Moderna vaccine rely on messenger RNA or mRNA, a relatively new technology used in vaccines that experts have been working on for years.
MNA vaccines help train the immune system to identify the spike protein on the surface of the coronavirus and create an immune response. Experts said there was no truth to the claims that vaccines can genetically modify humans.
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