A California prosecutor and anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate activist who died from the coronavirus was not vaccinated, according to her widower.

Kelly Ernby, a rising leader in the state’s Republican Party circles and who was outspoken about her belief that getting vaccinated against coronavirus was a personal choice, died earlier this week at 46. The death of the Orange County deputy district attorney prompted speculation she had died after getting the vaccine, but her husband Mattias Axel Ernby quickly dispelled the notion.

“Please stop spreading lies about Kelly Ernby,” he wrote in a Facebook post about his wife’s death.

He added she had not been vaccinated, and “that was the problem.”

Ben Chapman, chairman of the Greater Costa Mesa Republicans, tweeted, “I lost a dear friend to Covid complications. You’ve been nothing but an inspiration to many of us here in Orange County.”

Kelly Ernby, a Huntington Beach resident, worked as a deputy district attorney for a decade, mainly focusing on environmental law and consumer protection cases.

She ran for the Assembly in 2020 but lost her primary bid.

Kelly Ernby gained popularity on social media last year when she spoke up about her fierce opposition to vaccine mandates.

During a Dec. 4 rally at Irvine City Hall, she drew parallels between the 1960s and the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming both eras saw people losing their individual freedoms to what she called socialist ideals, California State University, Fullerton’s Daily Titan reported.

“There’s nothing that matters more than our freedoms right now,” she said.

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Ernby had been widely expected to announce she’d run in the newly drawn coastal 72nd District but died before making the announcement.

“Kelly and I spent a lot of time together on the campaign trail in 2020,” tweeted Brian Burley, a Republican who ran for Congress during the last cycle. “She was one of the few people in politics that always came across as real, authentic, caring and passionate.”

Despite the news of her death, some Republican leaders who considered Ernby a friend said their positions on vaccine mandates have not changed.

“I intend to continue, if invited, speaking out against the mandates and also saying that my choice is to get vaccinated, and I believe that should be the choice most people make absent a genuine health concern or absent a religious objection,” said Orange County Third District Supervisor Don Wagner, who spoke with Ernby at the anti-mandate rally in Irvine on Dec. 4.

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Wagner shrugged off concerns that discouraging people from getting a vaccine might lead to a greater public health threat. He added that most people knew the stakes and had already made up their minds on the vaccine.

Original Location: California anti-vaccine mandate activist who died of COVID-19 was not inoculated, says husband

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