Kelly Ernby, a deputy district attorney in Orange County, California, who recently campaigned for state assembly and routinely spoke out against vaccination requirements, died of COVID-19 complications. Friends, family members, and coworkers confirmed the 46-year-death old’s on Monday.
According to the Associated Press, Ernby, who lived in Huntington Beach, has worked for the district attorney’s office since 2011, where she specialized in environmental and consumer law. Ernby, who had been lauded for her efforts to environmental law enforcement, was described as “an incredibly vibrant and passionate attorney.” by the office.
Last year, Ernby ran for the California State Assembly but was defeated in the primary by Diane Dixon. According to CBS Los Angeles, she planned to run again.
Ernby has been a vocal opponent of COVID vaccine requirements, saying in August on her personal Facebook page that “vaccine is not the cure to Covid, and mandates won’t work.”
At an anti-vaccine demonstration at California State University, Fullerton in December, she drew comparisons between now and the 1960s. She told the university’s student newspaper that in the 1960s, people were on the verge of losing their liberties due to socialist ideologies.
“There’s nothing that matters more than our freedoms right now,” she said during the event, which was organized in partnership with the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA. “…Our government for the people and by the people is not going to exist without action of the people.”
She attended an online town hall while campaigning for the assembly seat in November 2019, prior to the COVID outbreak, declaring her “fundamental belief is that government should be very small.”
She stated, “I don’t believe in mandates,” “…It’s not about being anti-vaccine, it’s about the choice to choose.”
Following Ernby’s death, rumors soon spread that she died of COVID-19 because she had been vaccinated. Mattias Ernby, her husband, and a number of her acquaintances have openly said that this is not the case.
“I have received over 200 emails, DMs or tweets with death threats, people praising my friends death and/or those calling for us to die, in the last 24 hours,” Ernby’s buddy, Ben Chapman, who also serves as the chairman of the Greater Costa Mesa Republicans, posted on Facebook. “…My buddy was not vaccinated, and no reliable source claims she survived because she was vaccinated. Her spouse and I both admitted that she had not been vaccinated.”
According to the state’s COVID dashboard, California, like most of the world, has witnessed a recent surge in COVID instances, with a daily average of 22,794 cases. With just under 80% of the state’s population being at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19, the number of COVID-19-related deaths has decreased on a daily basis.
According to current research, unvaccinated persons were 5.2 times more likely than fully vaccinated people to get COVID-19 from December 13 to 19, 2021, and 15 times more likely to die.