Featured Image Credit: UN Web TV
Topics: Ben Affleck, Covid-19
Ben Williams
Violet Affleck has once again shown she’s determined to use her platform for change, and her latest powerful speech has explained why she’s so often seen wearing a face mask in public.
Violet is the eldest daughter of Daredevil stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, who were married from 2005 to 2015, with their divorce being finalised in 2018. The former couple also share Violet's siblings, Seraphina, 16, and Samuel, 13, together.
The 19-year-old Yale student appeared at the United Nations in New York this week as part of an event titled 'Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action'.
In an impassioned plea, she urged world leaders to take airborne illness seriously and insisted the fight against long COVID is far from over.
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Violet told the audience: “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’."
She also criticised society’s push to move 'back to normal' while downplaying the ongoing risks.
Violet argued that clean air should be considered just as much of a human right as clean water, adding: "We can create clean air infrastructure that is so ubiquitous and so obviously necessary, tomorrow’s children don’t even know why we need it."
She added that 'long COVID has surpassed asthma as the most common chronic illness in children in five years and under', and that she was 'terrified' for children who 'will not know a world without debilitating pain and exhaustion' after experiencing COVID.
She continued: "Young people lacked both real choice in the matter and information about what was being chosen for us."
"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," Violet added.
In 2019, the 19-year-old had been diagnosed with a 'post-viral condition', which she revealed at her speech for the LA County Board of Supervisors last year.
"I’m OK now, but I saw firsthand that medicine does not always have answers to the consequences of even minor viruses,” she said.
That reality, she explained, is the reason she continues to wear a mask when out in public – even long after mandates were dropped.
She further warned against a ban on masks, adding that they 'do not keep us safer', but rather make 'vulnerable members of our community less safe'.
At the UN this week, Violet also doubled down her demands, calling for universal healthcare, paid sick leave, and free distribution of masks to those who need them.
She also previously called for the county to 'expand the availability of high-quality free tests and treatment, and most importantly, the county must oppose mask bans for any reason'.