A Wisconsin hospital pharmacist accused of deliberately spoiling doses of the Moderna COVID vaccine has agreed to plead guilty, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Steven Brandenburg, 46, signed a plea agreement on January 26, 2021, the department said in a statement that was also covered by Reuters. He was charged with two counts of attempting to tamper with consumer products, and each count carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. He has agreed to plead guilty, but as of the announcement he had not formally entered a plea in court. His own comment was not included in the department’s statement.
According to the Justice Department, Brandenburg worked as a pharmacist at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin. On two successive overnight shifts in late December 2020, he allegedly took a box of Moderna vaccine out of the hospital’s refrigeration unit and left it out for several hours, then put it back so it could be used at the next day’s vaccine clinic. Prosecutors say the goal was to make the vaccine ineffective. The department said hundreds of doses were affected, and 57 people received doses from those vials before the problem came to light.
The plea agreement states that Brandenburg believed in conspiracy theories and was skeptical of vaccines, especially the Moderna vaccine. U.S. Attorney Matthew Krueger said the Justice Department will go after anyone, and especially medical professionals, who tamper with the vaccine.
The case was investigated by the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, the FBI Milwaukee Field Office and the Grafton Police Department.
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