2LT International News

Pharmacist fined $58,000, 3 years in jail for ruining Covid vaccines

Jun 13, 2021

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin: A Wisconsin pharmacist is to be jailed for three years for destroying hundreds of doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.

He said he destroyed the vaccines because he did not believe they would provide the protection they claimed, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Steven R. Brandenburg, 46, was also fined some $83,800 in compensation to the hospital whose vaccines he destroyed.

Brandenburg earlier agreed to plead guilty to two counts of “attempting to tamper with consumer products with reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death or bodily injury.”

In December 2020, he pleaded guilty to removing vaccines from a refrigerator and allowing them to spoil by becoming too warm.

Officials said he did this on two successive nights.

Brandenburg said he had been skeptical of all Covid vaccines, but particularly the Moderna vaccine. He also had discussed his lack of trust in the vaccines with coworkers over the past two years.

Moderna’s vaccine must be stored and shipped while frozen. However, it can be stored for 30 days in standard refrigerators.