Calif. Prosecutor Dies of COVID at 46: Politician Was Outspoken Vaccine Mandate Opponent"
My heart is broken and I'm in tears. I lost a dear friend to Covid complications," one colleague of Kelly Ernby's wrote on social media
Per the Times, she once said vaccinations were "a decision between doctors and their patients." (It's unclear if Ernby had been vaccinated against COVID; her employer told PEOPLE they couldn't discuss her cause of death and weren't allowed to ask her about her vaccination status.)
Health officials say vaccines are the best safeguard against serious illness or death from the virus, but COVID vaccine requirements have become increasingly politicized as a matter of personal choice.
Ernby spoke at a rally organized by local chapters of the right-wing group Turning Point USA as recently as Dec. 4, according to the Times.She told the crowd, "There's nothing that matters more than our freedoms right now."
