SOFTER STAND
`China' tweet addressed
The Essex town councillor who drew widespread criticism for his tweet downplaying the “Chinese flu” now says his experience with COVID-19 has been frightening.
“My first three days' experience was: `This is nothing, man,' ” said Chris Vander Doelen in comments before town council on Monday night.
“And then it dragged me back down. And that's why people cannot make light of this disease. It got scary.”
Earlier in Monday night's session, council agreed that Essex Mayor Larry Snively will send a letter of acknowledgment to the Essex County Chinese Canadian Association.
A local Chinese-canadian community group, the ECCCA has publicly expressed dismay and concern about the “damaging” and “xenophobic” nature of certain tweets by Vander Doelen.
Vander Doelen announced via Twitter on April 9 that he had tested positive for COVID -19 — which he described as “the Chinese flu” and the “Chinese Origin Virus.”
In the tweets, Vander Doelen also described his quarantine as “a punishment worse than the illness proved to be.”
But on Monday night, Vander Doelen — who is a former Windsor Star columnist — voiced the opposite sentiment. He spoke of the severity of his symptoms, and asked the public to take COVID -19 seriously.
“I lost 12 pounds, which is the most weight I've lost in 40 years,” Vander Doelen told council.
“I wasn't able to eat for 10 days. I could not lift my head off the pillow for many days. It was scary.”
Vander Doelen also expressed empathy for those whose COVID-19 symptoms have been even worse than his own.
“I had to try to go to sleep with the feeling of a fist squeezing my bronchial tubes ... I can just imagine what sends people to the ICUS and onto the ventilators. It must be just God-awful terrifying. I feel so terribly for them.”
Vander Doelen has been so affected by COVID-19 that he asked council to think twice when it comes to lifting measures and complaining about public health restrictions.
“I just think that maybe this council should rethink a bit when it starts squalling that the provincial government are all idiots and they should let us all out,” he said.
“Maybe we should just let the professionals handle this, and we should take their advice.”
However, Vander Doelen did not apologize for his tweets, nor has he deleted the one with the phrase “Chinese flu.”
During his comments to council on Monday night, Vander Doelen pointedly called COVID-19 “the disease whose source we cannot discuss.”