WATCH: Catholic Anti-Vax Healthcare Worker Calls the Pope a ‘Hypocrite’ Over COVID Vaccinations
CNN released an interview on Tuesday between reporter Miguel Marquez and a pair of anti-vaccine health care workers who both say they will lose their jobs rather than submit to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Registered nurse Donna Schmidt and medical assistant Stephanie Touchet told Marquez that they weren’t convinced the vaccines work, but Touchet took it a step further in one part of the interview where she attacked Pope Francis for encouraging vaccinations, going as far as to call the leader of the Catholic Church a “hypocrite” for putting science above God.
Marquez appeared shocked when Touchet, a self-described devout Catholic, blasted the Pope’s encouragement for a scientific fix when he’s meant to encourage his followers to allow their faith to guide them. “Even though the pope got vaccinated and says vaccines are fine and we should be getting them, that doesn’t work for you?” asked Marquez. “This is — this is God’s messenger on earth,” said Marquez. “This is the Bishop of Rome.”
So if the Pope says visitors to the Vatican have to be vaccinated, can his followers really claim faith-based exemptions? Serious question.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) September 29, 2021
“I feel he is a hypocrite,” said Touchet. “He was elected to that position,” said Touchet. “However, he’s not abiding by the Bible.”
BOOM: The Pope says all Vatican staff must be vaccinated or submit to testing.
Please make sure ALL Catholics see this.
— Nathan Mackenzie Brown 🌎 (@NathanMackBrown) September 29, 2021
In another part of the interview, Touchet promoted conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 death rate.
“The number of people who are hospitalized and die that are vaccinated is extremely low, compared to those who are dying by the thousands every week of COVID-19,” said Marquez.
“That’s a misconception,” said Touchet.
“I have seen them myself,” shot back Marquez. “I have talked to them, myself. Thousands of people are dying from COVID-19 every week.”
“Here is the — here is the thing,” said Touchet. “There’s several hundreds of thousands of people that were put on hospice five months before COVID came. They had brain tumors. They had lung cancer. They had COPD. They had other elements, illnesses. And yet, on their actual-death certificate, they deemed it that it was per COVID.”
“You can’t even accept that the vaccines work?” said Marquez.
“No, I am not convinced that they work yet,” said Touchet.
So a Catholic anti-vaxxer just called the Pope a hypocrite for getting a vaccine and saying that it is safe.
Catholicism. If batshit crazy had a billion faces.
— Doc Strange (@realDoc_Strange) September 29, 2021
Watch the full report, below.