Violet Affleck urges UN on post-pandemic mask mandates and clean air

Violet Affleck, 19, the daughter of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, used a United Nations podium on Tuesday to press for renewed public health measures against COVID 19, urging global leaders to adopt post-pandemic mask mandates and to invest in ubiquitous clean air infrastructure. Speaking at a Healthy Indoor Air event held during Climate Week, the Yale University student wore a K95 mask as she called filtered air a basic human right and warned of long term harms from unmitigated infection and reinfection.

Affleck framed her remarks around the airborne nature of SARS CoV2, saying one infection can cause "disabling damage to almost every cell in the body" and that each subsequent infection raises the risk of lasting impairment. Quoting research, she told delegates that "at this point, the whole population is the control group," and cited a projection that long COVID has become the most common chronic illness among children five years and under, surpassing asthma after five years of the pandemic. She added, "We are told by leaders across the board that we are the future. But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes."