A columnist with The Los Angeles Times has declared that it is acceptable to ridicule the unvaccinated Orange County deputy district attorney for dying of COVID-19, writing: 'mockery is not necessarily the wrong reaction'.
Michael Hiltzik, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author, on Monday turned his attention to the death of Kelly Ernby, 46.
Ernby, a rising Republican star, died on January 2 of COVID-19.
Her husband, Axel Mattias Ernby, has since denounced his wife's choice to spurn the vaccination, and rally against vaccine mandates.
'She was NOT vaccinated. That's the problem,' he said, according to screenshots of his comments shared on social media.
Her death was greeted with derision on social media, and Hiltzik said it was appropriate.
'Mockery is not necessarily the wrong reaction to those who publicly mocked anti-COVID measures and encouraged others to follow suit, before they perished of the disease the dangers of which they belittled,' he wrote.
Kelly Ernby, 46, died of COVID-19 on January 2. She is pictured pre-pandemic, in November 2019, speaking against vaccine mandates in California, arguing that compelling vaccinations against chicken pox and measles were an infringement of liberties. She continued the argument with COVID vaccinations, arguing that they were unlawful
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Michael Hiltzik, a LA Times columnist, said that mockery of Ernby's death was justified
'Nor is it wrong to deny them our sympathy and solicitude, or to make sure it's known when their deaths are marked that they had stood fast against measures that might have protected themselves and others from the fate they succumbed to.
'There may be no other way to make sure that the lessons of these teachable moments are heard.'
Ernby spoke at a rally against COVID vaccine mandates at the Irvine City Hall on December 4. The event was hosted by the Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine chapters of the conservative group Turning Point USA.
'There's nothing that matters more than our freedoms right now,' she said, according to the Daily Titan.
Ernby had long railed against all vaccination mandates, stating pre-pandemic that they were unnecessary and an infringement of liberty.
California requires K-12 pupils to have as many as 20 doses of immunizations against polio, measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, diphtheria, hepatitis and chicken pox.
'I don't think the government should be involved in mandating what vaccines people are taking,' she said, asked about a proposal to eliminate the waiver for vaccinations on 'personal belief', in November 2019.
'If the government is going to mandate vaccines, what else will they mandate?'
Ernby, 46, was a California deputy district attorney and rising Republican star before she died from complications of COVID
In August, she posted a statement on her Facebook page supporting Huntington Beach firefighters who were opposing a vaccine mandate.
'The vaccine is not the cure to Covid, and mandates won't work,' she wrote.
As news of her death spread, many crowed about her actions.
The anti-Trump group Duty to Warn tweeted: 'Here's an update on Kelly Ernby, a Republican Deputy DA in California who ran for the State Assembly in 2020, and who said, at a rally last month: 'There's nothing that matters more than our freedoms right now,' and who recently tested positive for Covid. She's dead.'
One woman said: 'Orange County Deputy DA Kelly Ernby dead from Covid at age 46. This didn't have to happen.
'Even before the pandemic, Ernby was an anti-vaccine activist. Once the pandemic hit, 'Ernby remained an ardent and vocal opponent of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.''
Another man noted: 'Prominent anti-vax res dead of Covid-19? There have been some others …'
He then listed the radio hosts and prominent activists who have died of COVID.
'Deputy District attorney Kelly Ernby, orange country California in great health 46, dies from Covid due to antivax position for freedom,I bet she feels pretty free right now,' said another.
'Honestly if your freedom is so fragile that wearing a mask or being asked to get vaxxed scares u U R dead.'
Another added: 'At age 46, Kelly Ernby had all the opportunities to get vaccinated!
'Now that she is dead, maybe, this will be an eye opening to those who are still following her deadly path!
'Was all about her freedom but unfortunately, she got the freedom of graveyard!'
Hiltzik said that their mockery was warranted.
'As for whether a vaccination mandate is a slippery slope to more government control, as Ernby maintained, government mandates have been with us for untold decades. We require drivers to wear seat belts, cars to be equipped with air bags and drivers to observe speed limits and avoid pedestrians. We ban smoking in public places,' he argued.
'Obviously, the mandates exist because these diseases threaten not only infected persons themselves, but the community, meaning anyone they come in contact with.
'That's the folly of the anti-mandate argument: It places a perverse conception of individual 'freedom' in opposition to the
