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Violet Affleck, daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, makes impassioned speech at U.N. about long COVID

Violet Affleck, 19, a student at Yale, spoke to the U.N. on Tuesday about the need for global indoor air standards to combat long COVID and other post-viral conditions.

Violet Affleck speaks at a U.N. panel on healthy indoor air. United Nations

September 24, 2025

2 minutes to read

Violet Affleck, the daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, appeared before the U.N. on Tuesday to discuss the lingering effects of post COVID-19 condition (also known as long COVID) and what she sees as the best path forward for a healthier, safer world.

Affleck, 19, a student at Yale University, spoke at a U.N. event titled “Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action,” which was part of the intergovernmental organization’s larger Climate Week initiative.

After briefly acknowledging that her mom was watching at home, Violet began to discuss the importance of clean indoor air to prevent long COVID.

“Here’s what we know about SARS CoV2,” Affleck said. “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.”

Affleck then spoke about the rush to “return to normal,” which she fears will have a significant impact on a generation of children.

“At this point, the whole population is the control group, and after only five years, long COVID has surpassed asthma as the most common chronic illness in children,” Affleck said. “Five years.”

Actress Jennifer Garner arrives with her daughter Violet Affleck for the State Dinner with President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022. *– (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)*

According to the World Health Organization, approximately six percent of people who contract COVID-19 subsequently suffer a post-COVID condition. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, that figure grows to 10-20 percent among children and young adults.

“I am terrified for the children who do not or soon will not know a world without debilitating pain and exhaustion,” Affleck said. “Who cannot trust their bodies to play, explore and imagine, and who will not know the potential of their own minds unfettered by the cognitive damage from a COVID-19 infection. And I am furious on their behalf.”

The clean air cause is a personal one for Violet: As she shared during a 2024 address at a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Meeting, she gained an unfortunate early glimpse at the deleterious effects of long COVID after contracting a different post-viral condition in 2019.

Affleck concluded her remarks by pushing for a top-down approach to safer air quality as the best path to a safer, healthier world.

“We can recognize filtered air as a human right, as intuitively as we do filtered water,” Affleck said. “We can create clean air infrastructure that is so ubiquitous and so obviously necessary, tomorrow’s children don’t even know why we need it.”

You can watch Violet Affleck’s full remarks to the U.N. here. (Affleck’s speech begins at 1:46:25.)

Kevin Slane

Staff Writer

Kevin Slane is a staff writer for Boston.com covering entertainment and culture. His work focuses on movie reviews, streaming guides, celebrities, and things to do in Boston.