Pharmacist who tried to spoil Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines set to plead guilty in court
A vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is seen at a local clinic as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues in Aschaffenburg, Germany, January 15, 2021
A pharmacist from Wisconsin on Wednesday agreed to plead guilty forattempting to spoilhundreds of Moderna coronavirus vaccines.
The US Justice Department said that the pharmacist was doing it to make the shots ineffective.
46-year-old Steven Brandenburg was charged with two counts of attempting to tamper with consumer products, and with reckless disregard that another person will be placed in danger of bodily injury or death, as stated in a Department of Justice statement.
The statement also claimed that he had believed in numerous conspiracy theories, and was sceptical of vaccines in general.
It was also found that the pharmacist was specifically unsure of Moderna’s vaccine, which led him to spoiling hundreds of doses.
US Food and Drug Administration has ruled Moderna’s vaccine safe and effective.
Brandenburg signed a plea agreement, as part of which he will plead guilty and each of which could land him in jail for maximum ten years.
In the later part of December, Brandenburg removed a box of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine from a refrigerator in Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin.
He wanted to ruin its effectiveness.
Reportedly, he left out the vaccines in the refrigerator for a few hours before putting them back. 57 people had already received the vaccine from the batch before tampering was discovered.
To be effective, Moderna’s vaccine needs to be stored and shipped frozen. But it does not require ultra cold temperatures for its vaccine, which may retain efficacy even in regular temperature refrigerators.