Violet Affleck and mask mandates

It’s pushback against cleaner air. I don’t get it. Let’s reduce hospital-acquired infections. No!
Let’s reduce the number of people becoming disabled from infections. No!
Let’s reduce the costs of infections. No!
Let’s help with allergens. No!
Let’s improve attendance. No!
Let’s improve test scores. No!

Hepa air filters, very simple and effective.

I think ultimately the UN will follow the science and not mandate something because of what Violet Affleck says. It all seems a bit pointless to be honest, I'm not sure what "authority" she has to speak to them...do they often allow unqualified members of the public an audience? Maybe they do, I don't know.

I agree, @dreamiesformolly - I caught Covid after getting the first dose of the first vaccine, and I ended up in hospital, on oxygen, having dropped my oxygen saturations to under 90%. I was in for several days, luckily not in ICU, but ended up with long covid, which has left me registered disabled, only able to leave the house very rarely, with dh basically having to do almost everything round the house. I can make myself a sandwich, or heat a ping meal, but haven’t cooked a proper meal in years. I used to go to the library, or do the supermarket shop in person, or wander round a shopping centre, art gallery, museum or stately home, but I can’t do that any more.

We live in a free country, she can do what she wants and think whatever she wants to think as long as she breaks no laws

not something to get het up about

Please don't generalise in that way about Covid. For some people it can still have very serious consequences, far worse than a cold. Nothing to do with being a 'wet lettuce' as you so charmingly put it.

Yep - this SUCH a typical mumsnet thread
OP posts something….no one actually bothers to check the basis of what they’ve said…..cue 5 pages of absolute drivel as people argue about whether a Uni student should be allowed to have an opinion. That she doesn’t even have. You couldn’t make it up.
its quite embarrassing to read.

oh and those of us who’ve been working in infectious diseases for most of their life totally applaud her view with regards to air filtration in public spaces. It’s absolutely standard in other countries and makes a significant difference to CAIs and HAIs.

Exactly. Ben Affleck can't be as dim as he looks considering the talent displayed by his projects with Matt Damon, so it's not a leap to suggest his children will be intelligent.
They will be paying eye watering fees but that funds less wealthy, intelligent students.
The whole addressing the UN thing suggests she is being overly indulged, however.

Exactly this

She's absolutely entitled to her opinion but not to be telling the rest of us what to do, and IMO is simply making herself look like another silly teenager who thinks they have the answer to everything

She's suggesting a young woman should not be so anxious about Covid she is trying to get the mandatory wearing of masks reinstated. This isn't a thread about fashion choices.

I used to be an operating theatre nurse, and wore a surgical mask every working day, for extended periods of time - not to protect myself, but to protect the patients who had open wounds, on the operating table. I survived - no negative effects whatsoever.

Just be honest and admit you have a problem with this girls parents being rich and famous. 🙄

Also, wealth is a privilege sure. But being raised by 'stars' has its drawbacks, and having an addict parent is a distinct disadvantage.

That's another one of the Affleck children.

MIT and Harvard have both started to offer free tuition to anyone whose parents earn less than $200,000 from this year. MIT started this in 2024 with a limit of $140,000 but have increased to $200,000. Yale offer it for families earning below $75,000

All three schools use a weighting system to assess attainment which takes into account opportunity. This means that a young person with a GPA of 3.7 from a state school will be given a higher weighting than a young person with the same score from a prestigious private school.

Similarly, a young person from a public state school background from a deprived area, will be weighted higher than a student from a state school in a less deprived area.

Over 80% of MIT students and 60% of Harvard students attended state school (and this will increase with the new free tuition policy) compared to 90% of children attending state school overall in the US.

This means US young people from less well off backgrounds stand a much better chance of being able to attend Ivy League colleges than UK children have of attending Russell Group universities.

British universities, generally don't offer blanket tuition free opportunities in the same way and our levels for maintenance loan qualification are much much lower, nor do they weight attainment to account for educational opportunity.

The percentage of state school educated children attending Oxford is 66% and decreasing, Cambridge is just over 70%, compared with just 93-94% of children attending state schools.

They haven't yet moved on to the masks killing fish and other wildlife, when they inevitably end up in the oceans, in their millions? The mask mandate came moments after the government was preaching "avoid single-use plastic waste".

If the masks had been "strongly recommended", I would have respected them more. But because no less of an authority than the Health Secretary said at first "masks are worse than useless", then there was the complete U-turn to making them compulsory, because people "feel safer" with them, or probably at the some moment that somebody realised they were the perfect tool with which to divide the public and make them fight, and an easy way to spot the sceptics so they could be rounded up and banished from society, I have been extremely sceptical they do any good. A lot of the stuff like "wear a mask when standing, but take it off to eat" was pure nonsense, and the government knew it: but it was an easy way to appear to be doing something. One shop near me had a little shrine to Saint Boris, with a picture of him saying "Boris says you must wear a mask in shops".

Allegedly, Boris's own behavioural team persuaded him to mask up, when he had resisted: they showed him pictures of world leaders all in masks, then one of himself not wearing one.

It's like she's got this as some manifestation of OCD. I think she needs help, not a platform to rant on.

would have thought there were bigger issues in the US right now for her to defend.is this her thing or has she a job eg lawyer

I think it's because this particular individual has, if the article is accurate, said other people should be made to wear them sometimes. If it was just about her own choice then I'd agree with you. But she doesn't appear to concur with your very reasonable view that people might choose not to wear one and that's fine.

If she wants to wear a mask that's up to her. Advocating for mask mandates however is batshit. It would go down like a lead balloon, never going to happen so no need to get worked up about it. I'm not really into taking advice from Hollywood brats.

Had to double check this thread wasn't from lockdowns. I don't know why people get so worked up over masks still. If you don't want to wear one then fine. If someone chooses to wear one for reasons they don't have to divulge to strangers that's also fine.

I work in development. Am frustrated because there are so many youth in developing countries with real pressing issues. They work hard in their communities addressing such issues yet this precious platform is given to a privileged American girl to fight against banning Masks. No one is doing that at global level. IS something local republicans have talked about in passing in certain counties. Why is she pretending it's a global issue. She can continue to talk about it at the local town Hall but not at UN.
So many of us working in development are frustrated that celebrities are increasingly put at the front at issues they don't understand and really many don't care about. It's just PR. Few bring net benefit to the development agencies they speak on behalf of or the platforms they are given. So gatvol!

They have huge pollution in china that's why they wear masks.

You think everyone who goes to Yale gets the opportunity to speak at the UN? Seriously? It is clearly nepotism.

That is her sister.

Advocating for wearing masks all these years after a pandemic is completely bonkers especially as evidence of the benefits of wearing them is sketchy at best.

Yes she is free to choose as mask. And the rest of us are free not to wear one.