Published 15:05 IST, February 2nd 2021
Wisconsin pharmacist who destroyed 570 doses of COVID-19 vaccine believes 'earth is flat'
The Wisconsin pharmacist who destroyed 570 doses of COVID-19 vaccines by taking out of the refrigerator, belives 'earth is flat' and that the 'sky is not real'.
The Wisconsin pharmacist who removed 57 vials, each containing jabs for at least 10 vaccinations of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine from hospital’s refrigerators and voluntarily destroyed them, believes the earth is flat, said FBI. As per the Daily Beast report, Steven Brandenburg, the overnight pharmacist at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin believed that the COVID-19 vaccine would cause harm to people and even make them infertile and implant them with microchips.
However, detained for destroying more than 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, federal authorities reportedly said that his belief in baseless claims goes beyond just the vaccine or COVID-19. Court documents also reveal that the Wisconsin pharmacist believes the ‘Earth is flat’ and ‘the sky is not real’. Brandenburg has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to charges of attempting to spoil Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines.
According to the US media outlet, Brandenburg’s debunked beliefs were revealed to the court after searching his phone, computer, and other items by the FBI. Reportedly the documents also include interviews with Brandenburg and Aurora Medical Center pharmacy technician Sarah Sticker. The pharmacist believed that sky is actually a “shield put up by the Government to prevent individuals from seeing God.”
The FBI search warrant was obtained by the media outlet, that FBI had filed earlier this month requesting the permission to analyse Bradenburg’s belongings following his arrest in December 2020. The US federal authorities have accused the 46-year-old of intentionally destroying at least 570 doses of vaccine by removing a box containing the vials from the refrigerator at Advocate Aurora Health Systems, twice when he worked the night shift. As per the report, Brandenburg knew taking the vials out of the refrigerator would tamper the doses as they can only survive for 12 hours outside of refrigeration, claim prosecutors.
Other claims in the 26-page filing by FBI
The media outlet stated that the warrant application filed in the federal court by FBI Special Agent Lindsay Schloemer relayed other delusions that Bradenburg thinks are true. Reportedly, the Wisconsin pharmacist insists that the “microchipped” COVID-19 vaccine would “turn off people’s birth control and make others infertile”. FBI stated that Brandenburg was convinced the physical world around him was not what it seemed.
Daily Beast cited the 26-page filing by Schloemer saying, “Some of the conspiracy theories Brandenburg told [the coworker] about included: the earth is flat; the sky is not real, rather it is a shield put up by the Government to prevent individuals from seeing God, and Judgment Day is coming.” Further, Sticker, who had alerted the authorities on finding unrefrigerated vaccines in December 2020, told the authorities that Brandenburg carried a handgun “in case the military came to take him away.”
Updated 15:03 IST, February 2nd 2021