"The following is a rush transcript of Todd Starnes' interview with a Nashville nurse who was “voluntarily terminated” because she refused to get the COVID vaccine, after recovering from COVID.
TODD:
... "We have an anonymous guest and we’ve been able to we’ve been able to check out this person’s story.
We’ve been working on this for a couple of days now to make sure this interview would happen.
And we have agreed that we would not name the nurse who is on the Patriot mobile newsmaker line right now, but she worked for the Ascension St Thomas Hospital in the Nashville area.
And the allegation is that nurses are being fired or voluntarily resigned because they will not get the vaccine.
TODD: [01:35:16]
... take us through what happened to you.
How long did you work at the hospital?
NURSE: [01:35:21]
I worked there exactly five years.
TODD: [01:35:24]
So five years and tell us some of the things that you did as a nurse at the hospital.
NURSE: [01:35:30]
So I worked in the recovery room and in the surgical department, and then most recently, I worked in the pre admission testing department.
TODD: [01:35:39]
Why did you want to be a nurse?
NURSE: [01:35:42]
Oh, I’ve been a nurse for 35 years.
It was just always something I wanted to do.
From the time I was a little girl, I just knew I wanted.
I wanted to be a nurse and take care of people.
TODD: [01:35:52]
When did you realize and take me through the process?
Like many hospitals, I’m sure that orders came down.
When did that happen for y’all?
NURSE: [01:36:01]
So it was right around August 1st, we got an email from Corporate saying that we would be placed under the vaccine mandate with the deadline given of November 12.
We were told that we could comply with that, that we would need to receive two of the vaccines to be fully vaccinated by November 12th, or we would be unable to continue working as of that date.
We were offered the opportunity to file either a medical or religious exemption. I filed for a religious exemption that was immediately denied.
TODD: [01:36:36]
Is that right now?
Tell me about the religious exemption?
NURSE: [01:36:40]
So I filed mine under the fact that I wasn’t willing to inject things into my body that I looked at might look at my body as the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and I wasn’t sure what was in this vaccine.
Nobody seems to be able to say exactly how this vaccine works or the long term effects of it, or or how it could affect us, you know, in a year or in five years or all of those things.
So I just decided that that wasn’t, you know, I’m careful about what I put in my body.
I read labels and I exercise, and I work very hard to be healthy, and I just didn’t feel like that was the right decision for me to make.
TODD: [01:37:18]
Now I have a couple of questions that are that are sort of they’re all connected here ...
So first of all, you went to college. Is that right?
Yes. So, so tell me about the degrees that you have.
NURSE: [01:37:29]
I have a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing a BSN.
TODD: [01:37:33] A
... And I have to imagine you went through years of additional training over the course of your, what, 35 year career.
NURSE: [01:37:42]
And of course, with different areas that I worked in, I went through a different orientations and certifications and training to become better able to do well at what I was doing at that particular time.
TODD: [01:37:54]
Because the narrative here is that people who refuse the vaccine or want to claim a medical or religious exemption are uneducated.
... But here you are, a very well-educated, professionally trained nurse.
What was it and what are you seeing and your fellow nurses?
What are you guys seeing at the hospital that is giving you guys pause for concern here?
NURSE: [01:38:21]
Well, it’s not just at the hospital ... (but) we’re seeing that the vaccine doesn’t necessarily protect you from COVID or from spreading it.
You know, there are people hospitalized that have been vaccinated as well as those who haven’t been ... we read anything that’s out there, no one actually can answer any questions about the long term effects of this vaccine.
And if we’re going to really look at the science, which is what I’ve chosen to do for my own body, I had COVID last year.
I got tested in August for the antibodies and had a good high number of of them.
And I just retested actually Tuesday, November 9th, and my numbers have remained the same.
So if we’re going to truly look at the science, but look, let’s look at the way that our bodies were designed and our immune system.
You know, and my immune system is working well.
I have the antibodies and it’s protecting me from being sick.
I’m very healthy, even though I’ve been very much exposed to COVID at work up until yesterday ... my last day ...
So that’s what I based my decision on.
TODD: [01:39:26]
... That timeline is in August, they send out the latter have how have your fellow nurses and fellow staff, how have they responded?
Have have any of them been fired?
Have they resigned from their jobs?
NURSE: [01:39:39]
... those in my department, which were 25 percent of us were unvaccinated, all filed for an exemption of some sort and all were denied.
... We had virtually zero communication from corporate about how this would look all the kept saying, you know, the narrative just kept repeating.
November 12th is the deadline.
... They never gave us any further information about what this would look like and would we be ushered out of the building on November 12th?
What would happen to our benefits?
What would happen to our. Insurance, these kind of things, so nothing much was said all the way through until this week when we got a memo saying ... the deadline still held November 12th, you still had time to comply with the vaccine mandate.
If you didn’t comply by November 12th, then you would be placed on suspension. Your badge and your credentials would no longer work for you at work.
We were taken off of the schedule as of this week and told that we had until January 4th to comply.
And if we didn’t comply by January 4th, we would be terminated and at that point, our PTO will be paid out.
TODD: [01:40:51]
... So what has been the issue you said this week was your last week.
What happened?
NURSE: [01:40:58]
... I showed up for work and my normal
schedule days and my last day
I clocked out and I came home.
That’s what happened.
TODD: [01:41:07]
... Were you fired?
Were you voluntarily resigned?
NURSE: [01:41:11]
... I reached out to my nurse manager
on Monday and I said, so my last day
on the schedule is November 12th.
I’m not resigning.
I said to her, I said, So are you firing me
because I am no longer scheduled
after November 10th?
And she said, No, you are not being fired.
You are being voluntarily terminated because you no longer meet the qualifications of employment here because you have not received the vaccine.
So if you don’t receive the vaccine by the fourth, then you will be terminated the fourth of January and you will be terminated.
But I am no longer on the schedule, and my badge no longer enables me to enter the building or to enter the computer system.
TODD: [01:41:49]
What what are you hearing from
any ... other ... nurses and staff,
anybody else face facing
the same fate that you are?
NURSE: [01:41:57]
The ones from my department all are out
as of today and numerous others.
... I wish I could give you the exact number.
... we I don’t know how many are leaving the hospital.
I heard it was somewhere around 100,
but I can’t ... verify that at all.
TODD: [01:42:16]
That’s a pretty large number, though.
NURSE: [01:42:19]
... it’s a huge number.
And when you look at staffing shortages in hospitals across the nation prior to this situation, you know, it makes me wonder what kind of care is going to be rendered in hospitals now.
I know they’re bringing in travelers.
They’re offering huge bonuses and hourly pay rate on contracted nurses, this kind of thing to help fill in the gap.
But there’s absolutely ... no way that that they can staff these units appropriately ... with a safe nurse to patient ratio,
TODD: [01:42:53]
... we just told our listeners about a 28 year old physical therapist, Carter has a Ph.D., just got married, got the vaccine, the Moderna vaccine.
Two days later, she’s dead.
... You’ve got football players ... the Minnesota Vikings. The whole team has been vaccinated.
One of the players rushed to the hospital.
And you know, again, we’re not being told what it’s about, but they believe it’s COVID related.
When you hear these kinds of stories about perfectly healthy, active athletic people that are dropping because of getting the vaccine, does that give you concern?
NURSE: [01:43:29]
It makes me want to lose my mind and shake people and say, wake up, why are you not paying attention to the information that’s out there?
... I think that the vaccine related adverse effects are severely underreported ... it doesn’t ever make mainstream media ...
It’s hard to find. But just looking at those examples ...
why wouldn’t people wake up and say,
Oh my goodness, what is wrong here?
Why aren’t we looking at these cases?
TODD: [01:44:03]
It’s a great question.
... I’m curious about your future.
... What are your plans?
NURSE: [01:44:14]
... I’ve I’ve got a couple of job offers at places in my town, some that are not requiring the vaccine as of yet.
Some that are granting religious exemptions, you know, across the board in order to keep their staff.
So I’m just going to move forward from here and trust that, you know, God has something better for me that he’s going to take care of me and get me in the right spot.
And I’m going to love my next position of taking care of patients wherever it is that I end up.
TODD: [01:44:47]
Well, good for you, and I have to imagine Ascension St. Thomas as at a Catholic hospital.
NURSE: [01:44:53]
It is a Catholic hospital. Yes.
TODD: [01:44:55]
They are not behaving like Catholics.
NURSE: [01:44:58]
I would agree ...
TODD: [01:45:00]
... Well, anonymous nurse. Thank you and we wish you the very best. You’ve got our contact information and we want you to, you know, let us know if you have any other details. That’s really the purpose of talk radio these days is to share information the mainstream media wants to cover up. ... "
