Former Langley East MLA Rich Coleman tweeted and then deleted a meme that downplayed the risk of dying from the COVID-19 virus.

On Boxing Day, Dec. 26, Coleman tweeted a meme that asked 鈥淗ow will we know if the vaccines are working? Will the survival rate go up from 99.5% to 99.7%?鈥�

He deleted the original tweet that evening, saying online that 鈥渙n reflection thought it wasn鈥檛 that funny. My bad.鈥�

Coleman, who was the Liberal MLA for Fort Langley-Aldergrove and then Langley East from 1996 to earlier this year, was deluged with criticism on the social media site both before and after he deleted the inaccurate tweet.

Coleman did not run for re-election, and the Langley East seat is currently held by NDP MLA Megan Dykeman following the October provincial election.

鈥淪ometimes you don鈥檛 get it right, and I didn鈥檛,鈥� Coleman told the Langley Advance Times Monday.

So I tweeted something earlier and on reflection thought it wasn鈥檛 that funny. My bad. Sorry folks.

鈥� Rich Coleman (@colemancountry)

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 me trying to make any comment about vaccines, because I鈥檓 a a big supporter of vaccines,鈥� Coleman said.

He said he apologized for the earlier tweet.

The total death rate from coronavirus in B.C., according to the BC Centre for Disease Control statistics is not 0.5 per cent or 0.3 per cent, as the original tweet suggested, but 1.66 per cent, with the survival rate 98.44 per cent.

To put that into perspective, if 1.66 per cent of British Columbia鈥檚 population of 5.07 million people died, that would be more than 84,000 deaths 鈥� equal to more than half the total population of Langley.

The death rate from COVID-19 is not evenly distributed.

There have been almost no deaths among British Columbians under 40 years old, even though more 20 to 29 year olds have contracted the virus than any other age group.

But starting at middle age, the threat of hospitalization and death rises sharply.

B.C.鈥檚 chief medical health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, presented a slide in her Dec. 23 briefing showing that among 60 to 69 year olds who tested positive for COVID-19, the death rate was more than five per cent.

Those aged 70 to 79 had a nearly 20 per cent chance of dying, and the death rate was about 40 per cent for 80 to 89 year olds.

In Langley Lodge鈥檚 outbreak, one of the worst in the province, 25 residents of 51 who contracted the disease died. In addition to being a death rate of almost 50 per cent, the outbreak killed more than 17 per cent of the approximately 140 residents in the entire facility.

More recently, Langley has seen outbreaks at the and in .

Vaccinations began in B.C. in mid-December, with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines approved and now being deployed. But public health experts and authorities have been , thus making the population more vulnerable and drawing out the pandemic.

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