Donna Schmidt and Stephanie Bouchet (CNN).
On Tuesday, CNN released an interview between reporter Miguel Marquez and a pair of anti-vaccine health care workers -- registered nurse Donna Schmidt and medical assistant Stephanie Touchet -- who both say they will lose their jobs rather than submit to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
In one part of the interview, Marquez appeared shocked when Touchet, a self-described Catholic, attacked Pope Francis for encouraging vaccinations.
"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.
"I feel he is a hypocrite," said Touchet.
"This is — this is God's messenger on earth," said Marquez. "This is the Bishop of Rome."
"He is. He was elected to that position," said Touchet. "However, he's not abiding by the Bible."
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.
Watch below:
Miguel Marquez interviews anti-vax health workers www.youtube.com
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