Violet Affleck Advocates Against Mask Bans in Los Angeles: “They Do Not Keep Us Safer”

Violet Affleck is speaking out against a proposed mask ban in Los Angeles.

The 18-year-old daughter of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner gave a minute-long speech on Tuesday at a meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

As seen in a video posted to X yesterday, Affleck began by introducing herself: “Violet Affleck, Los Angeles resident, first-time voter of 18.” She then revealed that she “contracted a post-viral condition in 2019.”

“I’m okay 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 sharp relief. One in 10 infections lead to long Covid, which is a devastating neurological cardiovascular illness that can take away people’s ability to work, move, see, and even think.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes long Covid as a “chronic condition” that an individual has an increasing risk of contracting each time they are infected with the COVID-19 virus.

Affleck continued: “[Long Covid] stands to 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, anyone in a public-facing essential job the hardest.”

She then introduced a set of propositions that would “confront the long Covid crisis.”

“I demand masks availability, air filtration, and far-UVC light in government facilities—including jails and detention centers—and mask mandates in county medical facilities,” she said. “You must expand the availability of high-quality free tests and treatment and, most importantly, the county must oppose mask bans for any reason.”

Affleck concluded, “[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.”

Despite increasing cases of COVID-19 in the city, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass recently announced that city officials are looking into banning masks at public demonstrations. The news comes amid several pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protests at which many participants have worn masks. Other cities, like New York, are also considering mask bans within their own jurisdictions, and Republican lawmakers in North Carolina restricted the wearing of masks in public with a controversial bill passed in June.

“They are creating a narrative that they know will have a chilling effect on people exercising their constitutional rights to protest,” Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate North Carolina, told NBC.

As an associate editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, Chelsey keeps a finger on the pulse on all things celeb news. She also writes on social movements, connecting with activists leading the fight on workers’ rights, climate justice, and more. Offline, she’s probably spending too much time on TikTok, rewatching Emma (the 2020 version, of course), or buying yet another corset.