Violet Affleck isn’t mincing phrases on the continued significance of masks mandates and different security measures 5 years after the COVID-19 pandemic induced social and financial disruption world wide.
On Tuesday, the eldest daughter of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner appeared earlier than members of the United Nations, the place she delivered an impassioned speech aimed toward world leaders and different lawmakers who’ve opted to dismiss the continuing danger of lengthy COVID.
“We are told by leaders across the board that we are the future,” mentioned the 19-year-old, carrying a face masks. “But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes.”
“For adults, the relentless beat of back to normal — ignoring, downplaying and concealing both the prevalence of airborne transmission and the threat of long COVID — manifested in a series of choices,” she continued. “Young people lacked both real choice in the matter and information about what was being chosen for us.”
Watch an “Access Hollywood” report on Violet Affleck’s speech beneath.
Violet Affleck’s look earlier than members of the U.N. befell throughout the Wholesome Indoor Air: A International Name to Motion occasion, held on Tuesday. Along with COVID-19 and different airborne illnesses, different subjects addressed on the occasion included the impression of airborne pollution similar to wildfire smoke and automobile emissions on each local weather change and international well being.
It isn’t the primary time the teenager has spoken out about her public well being considerations. At a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors assembly final yr, she revealed she’d contracted “a post-viral condition” in 2019, after which she got here to grasp how “medicine does not always have answers to the consequences of even minor viruses.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown that into sharper relief,” she added earlier than urging officers to ensure entry to masks for weak residents.
Nathan Howard by way of Getty Photographs
And earlier this yr, Violet Affleck in contrast the societal response to the Los Angeles wildfires with the response to COVID-19 in an essay for The Yale International Health Assessment, revealed by Yale College, the place she is at present a freshman.
She touched on a few of the factors from her essay in her speech on Tuesday, noting: “After only five years, long COVID has surpassed asthma as the most common chronic illness in children.”
“It is neglect of the highest order to look children in the eyes and say, ‘We knew how to protect you and we didn’t do it. We have access to a technology to prevent airborne disease, something that millions of our ancestors and millions of people around the world today would kill for, and we refuse to use it,’” she defined, pointing to her masks. “And I shudder to think of where we will be in another five years of unmitigated infection and reinfection.”
Ben Affleck and Garner are additionally dad and mom to Seraphina Affleck, 16, and son Samuel Affleck, 13. Whereas all three of their youngsters have largely stayed out of the highlight, Violet Affleck joined her mom at a 2022 White Home state dinner hosted by then-President Joe Biden and then-first woman Jill Biden.
