On Monday, The New York Timesreported that Steven Brandenburg, the Wisconsin pharmacist arrest for tampering with 500 vials of COVID-19 vaccine, "was 'an admitted conspiracy theorist' who believed the vaccine could harm people and 'change their DNA,' according to the police in Grafton, Wis., where the man was employed."
The deliberate sabotage made these vials useless, preventing them from being administered to frontline health care workers.
"Last month Mr. Brandenburg told his wife, who is in the process of divorcing him, that 'the world is crashing down around us,' according to a motion she filed last week asking for sole custody of the couple's two daughters, 4 and 6, after she learned he was under investigation in the incident at the hospital. She said she feared his reaction if he lost his job," reported Shaila Dewan and Kay Nolan. "In her motion, Gretchen Brandenburg said that on Dec. 6, her husband picked up the children and dropped off a water purifier, a large bucket of powdered milk and two 30-day emergency buckets of food."
Brandenburg's coworkers disclosed to authorities that he had also brought a gun to work on at least two occasions.
Aurora Medical Center first reported the sabotage of the vaccine doses last week.