Why Daughter Of Hollywood Royalty Is Speaking Out Against Mask Bans In LA

PACIFIC PALISADES, CA — Violet Affleck, the 18-year-old daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, is urging local government officials to boost COVID-19 precautions in the wake of her own health struggles.

Affleck on July 9 made an impassioned appeal to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors during the public comment period, where she spoke out against mask bans and in favor of increased access to free face coverings and COVID tests.

"Hi, Violet Affleck, Los Angeles resident, first-time voter, 18," she said. "I contracted a post-viral condition in 2019. I'm OK now, but I saw firsthand that medicine does not always have answers to the consequences of even minor viruses."

Affleck said that long COVID — a range of ongoing symptoms and conditions that can last years after initial COVID-19 illness — "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, women and anyone in a public-facing, essential job the hardest," she said. "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."

She also called for a greater availability of free tests and treatment. She also spoke out against masks bans. "They make more vulnerable members of our community less safe and make everyone less able to participate in Los Angeles together," she said.

Her comment came after Mayor Karen Bass last month signaled that city officials were exploring whether protestors — such as those rallying in support of Palestinians — should be allowed to wear masks. New York officials have spoke out against masking for non-health-related reasons, suggesting that some people have used masks to conceal their identities.

While Affleck did not specify the exact nature of her own condition, her speech at the supervisors meeting was just one of several instances where she's used her public profile to advocate for health-related causes.

Affleck over the weekend was photographed over the weekend in the Hamptons (alongside her dad's wife, Jennifer Lopez) wearing a shirt that read "CURE LONG COVID."

And earlier this year, paparazzi snapped a photo her her, alongside her mother, holding Steven Thrasher’s "The Viral Underclass," a book about how marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by the effects of disease.

Affleck frequently appears in paparazzi photos wearing a mask. She was also masked at the supervisors meeting.