The daughter of Hollywood A-listers Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck delivered a volley against banning mask mandates on Tuesday.
Violet Affleck, 18, spoke during the public comment period of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, according to the New York Post.
“Hi, Violet Affleck, Los Angeles resident, first-time voter, I’m 18,” the masked teen said.
“I contracted a post-viral condition in 2019,” she added.
She did not explain the nature of her condition. Although much of her presentation focused on COVID-19, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that the first case of COVID-19 in America was diagnosed in January 2020.
“I’m OK now, but I saw firsthand that medicine does not always have answers to the consequences of even minor viruses,” she said.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown that into sharper relief,” she continued.
Violet Affleck: “To confront the Long COVID crisis I demand mask availability, air filtration and far-UVC light in government facilities, including jails and detention centers and mask mandates in county medical facilities. We must expand availability of tests and treatment.… pic.twitter.com/zg4b7Z9vxy
— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) July 10, 2024
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“One in 10 infections leads to long COVID, which is a devastating neurological and cardiovascular illness that can take away people’s ability to work, see, move and even think,” she said.
What’s known as “long COVID” leaves individuals suffering from fatigue, lethargy, memory loss, inability to focus, and exhaustion.
Affleck said increases in long COVID would “exacerbate our homelessness crisis, as well as the suffering of many people in our city. It hits communities of color, disabled people, elderly people, trans people, women and anyone in a public-facing essential job the hardest.”
“To confront the long COVID crisis, I demand mask availability, air filtration and far-UVC lights in government facilities, including jails and detention centers, and mask mandates in county medical facilities,” she said.
“We must expand the availability of free tests and treatment and, most importantly, the county must oppose mask bans for any reason,” she said.
“[Mask bans] do not keep us safer, they make vulnerable members of our community less safe and make everyone less able to participate in Los Angeles together,” Affleck continued.
In June, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she might impose a mask ban on protesters amid anti-Israel unrest, according to USA Today.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center said “bans on the use of masks strongly inhibit one of the options that public health has to reduce the impact of pandemics in our population.”
Cases of COVID-19 are increasing over the summer, according to the CDC, with the greatest concentration of cases in California, Nevada and Arizona.
