Travel & Lifestyle: Violet Affleck Delivers Powerful UN Speech On Long COVID

Violet Affleck isn’t mincing words on the continued importance of mask mandates and other safety measures five years after the COVID-19 pandemic caused social and economic disruption around the world.

On Tuesday, the eldest daughter of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner appeared before members of the United Nations, where she delivered an impassioned speech aimed at world leaders and other lawmakers who have opted to dismiss the ongoing risk of long COVID.

“We are told by leaders across the board that we are the future,” said the 19-year-old, wearing a face mask. “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 below.

Violet Affleck’s appearance before members of the U.N. took place during the Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action event, held on Tuesday. In addition to COVID-19 and other airborne diseases, other topics addressed at the event included the impact of airborne pollutants such as wildfire smoke and vehicle emissions on both climate change and global health.

It isn’t the first time the teen has spoken out about her public health concerns. At a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting last year, she revealed she’d contracted “a post-viral condition” in 2019, after which she came to understand 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 before urging officials to guarantee access to masks for vulnerable residents.

And earlier this year, Violet Affleck compared the societal response to the Los Angeles wildfires with the response to COVID-19 in an essay for The Yale Global Health Review, published by Yale University, where she is currently a freshman.

She touched on some of the points 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 explained, pointing to her mask. “And I shudder to think of where we will be in another five years of unmitigated infection and reinfection.”

Ben Affleck and Garner are also parents to Seraphina Affleck, 16, and son Samuel Affleck, 13. While all three of their children have largely stayed out of the spotlight, Violet Affleck joined her mother at a 2022 White House state dinner hosted by then-President Joe Biden and then-first lady Jill Biden.