A US pharmacist has agreed to plead guilty to tampering with COVID-19 vaccine vials because he believed the jabs could harm people, prosecutors say. According to a BBC News report, Steven Brandenburg is accused of removing from cold storage 57 vials with 570 doses of the Moderna vaccine in Grafton, Wisconsin, in December. Without refrigeration, the vaccine becomes ineffective.
Brandenburg could be jailed for 20 years on two charges of attempting to tamper with consumer products. He also faces a $250,000 fine.
The District Attorney's office in Wisconsin said Brandenburg “signed a plea agreement acknowledging that he was guilty of attempting to render hundreds of doses of COVID-19 vaccine ineffective”.
He was charged “with two counts of attempting to tamper with consumer products, with reckless disregard for the risk that another person will be placed in danger of death or bodily injury”.
The pharmacist admitted that he “believed in various ‘conspiracy theories’; subscribed to notions of ‘alternative history’; and was sceptical of vaccines in general and the Moderna vaccine specifically”, the statement added.
The attorney's office said 57 people had received the jabs from the vials before the tampering was uncovered.
[link url="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55821623"]Full BBC News report (Open access)[/link]