'His death was preventable': Obituary blasts unvaccinated people for infecting one-time GOP leader with COVID-19

The family of a one-time Republican Party leader in New Jersey used his obituary to blast the unvaccinated people who allegedly infected him with COVID-19.

"He was infected by someone who chose to not get vaccinated and his death was preventable," states the obituary for Clark R. Allen. "It is the wish of his family that everyone get vaccinated in order to prevent further death, sickness and heartbreak."

The 83-year-old Allen had retired to Florida, which set a record for COVID hospitalizations this week, and has become the epicenter of an ongoing surge linked to the Delta variant in the U.S. Fewer than half of Floridians are fully vaccinated, and Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has come under intense criticism for his response to the crisis.

The New Jersey Globe reports that long before moving to Florida, Allen became a major player in Republican politics in the Garden State.

"Allen was allied with the conservative wing of the New Jersey GOP in the early 1960s and supported Barry Goldwater for President at a time when Thomas Kean worked on William Scranton's campaign and Christine Todd Whitman campaigned for Nelson Rockefeller," the Globe reported. "But after Goldwater's defeat, Allen led a group of young conservatives interested in uniting New Jersey Republicans and helping to stave off a 1966 GOP primary for a liberal two-term U.S. Senator, Clifford Case."