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Violet Affleck, the 19-year-old daughter of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, delivered a passionate address at the United Nations in New York on September 23, calling for stronger measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 and protect future generations. Speaking at the event Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action, the Yale freshman urged global leaders to treat clean air with the same urgency as clean water.
"We are told by leaders across the board that we are the future," she began, wearing a K95 mask. "But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes."
Affleck criticized the push to return to pre-pandemic life without acknowledging the risks of reinfection. She said adults have driven "the relentless beat of back to normal, ignoring, downplaying, and concealing both the prevalence of airborne transmission and the threat of long COVID."
Highlighting the dangers of SARS-CoV-2, she explained: "It is airborne, floating and lingering in the air, one infection can result in disabling damage to almost every cell in the body from the brain and heart to the nerves and blood vessels." She warned that "every subsequent infection increases the risk of long movement and places people who already have it in greater danger."
Quoting immunologist Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, she added that "after only five years, long COVID has surpassed asthma as the most common chronic illness in children in five years and under."
Affleck said she was "terrified" for children who "will not know a world without debilitating pain and exhaustion, who cannot trust their bodies to play, explore, and imagine" after infection. "I am furious on their behalf," she continued. "It is a 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.'"
Drawing comparisons to past public health battles, she recalled the fight against indoor smoking. "My only memory of that era at almost 20 years old is being confused as a child about the no smoking signs on planes. 'Who would do that? That's gross.' My hope is that we can and we must do that again."
She concluded: "We can recognize filtered air as a human right, as intuitively as we do filtered water. We can create clean air infrastructure that is so ubiquitous and so obviously necessary, so that tomorrow's children don't even know why we need it."
