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The Wisconsin hospital pharmacist who was fired and arrested for intentionally trying to destroy hundreds of doses of the Covid-19 vaccine has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, authorities said on Tuesday.
Steven Brandenburg was discharged from Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin in December after the hospital said it admitted to “intentionally removing the vaccine from the refrigeration.” Brandenburg, a pharmacist, has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of attempted falsification of consumer products with reckless disregard, the Justice Department said.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count.
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“According to the plea deal, Brandenburg said it was skeptical of vaccines in general and the Moderna vaccine in particular,” the department said on Tuesday. “Brandenburg had been sharing its vaccine beliefs with colleagues for at least two years.”
Prosecutors said Brandenburg intentionally removed Moderna vaccine doses from its refrigeration during two successive night shifts last month, possibly rendering them ineffective as vaccine vials must be stored at specific temperatures.
Brandenburg then put the vaccines back into the fridge after knowing they had been left out, leading to 57 people being injected with the potentially spoiled vaccines, the Justice Department said.
Grafton Police said Brandenburg was a “recognized conspiracy theorist” and he “told investigators he believed the Covid-19 vaccine was not safe for people and could harm them and change their DNA” .
The Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board suspended Brandenburg’s license earlier this month, which would not allow him to practice in a state pharmacy.
Anyone handling doses of Covid-19 will face justice, US lawyer Matthew D. Krueger said on Tuesday.
“The distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine is essential to overcome this pandemic, which continues to end lives and disrupt our economy,” said Krueger.
Moderna and Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccines, currently approved for emergency use in the United States, are not yet widely available. States have struggled to meet demand as supply chains for vaccines, competing for a scarce resource with each other and with the rest of the world.
According to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, more than 23.5 million doses were administered across the country on Tuesday. Only 3.4 million people have been fully vaccinated with both doses since the first shipments on December 14.
President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that he plans to purchase an additional 200 million doses in a bid to bolster distribution.
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