Violet Affleck and mask mandates

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AIBU think that this shouldn’t be encouraged? Violet Affleck advocating for mask mandates. Daughter of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck. Speaking about the importance of masks. Says we should still be wearing them to curb the spread of Covid 19.
Shouldn’t a young privileged woman be enjoying her youth? Is there a reason for fit healthy people like her to still walk around in masks?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-15127909/violet-affleck-mask-mandates-long-covid-ben-jennifer-garner.html

And?

How does that 12 year old data from an 8 year old study relating to income of Yale students negate what I said about Harvard and MIT expanding their free tuition thresholds this year and having a contextual admissions process which accounts for opportunity in response to a poster who was suggesting only those from rich private schools could get into them?

Yet people still have colds there. Which shows, surprise, surprise, that masks don’t stop colds and other illnesses from being spread. The virus particles are much smaller than the gaps in the weave of a regular face mask.

Yeah, I do think everyone should be wearing masks in enclosed public spaces at most times. I know this isn't going to happen, so I don't go on about it. I wear a mask if I have to be in a packed room, and I'm careful about how it fits because I will usually (not always) be the only mask-wearer. I'm not a great fan of other people's infectious body fluids - and make a serious effort not to share mine if I have a cold or something.

Happy to tell you I'm getting jabbed next week. Wish they were still offering it three times a year! Yes, we really are out here 😷

Masks don't work like sieves for small particles, rather it's an electrostatic attraction that draws the small particles towards the fibres to they can't keep flying through.

https://m.independent.ie/opinion/comment/tess-finch-lees-forever-covid-hurts-young-peoples-health-and-their-futures/a58161326.html

https://archive.ph/9r4hI (not pay walled)

It's nearly six years since the start of the pandemic. I wish we could move on from some of the views formed by that traumatic experience and just look at what's in front of us right now with fresh eyes. Do we or do we not want children in particular to get this disease often? If we don't, what can we do about it with the funds available? What do we want the government to have as a long-term goal for children's health and covid?

@DinaGoth @OwlBeThere Maybe I am wrong but I really don't think Yale would give a place to someone that - for example - has extreme learning difficulties and can barely read or write just because they come from a rich "legacy" family.

I never said they did, but you also can’t tell me that the super rich have always historically had an unfair advantage when it came to top universities, the fact they’ve changed the system and weighted it, as a response to that,

@OwlBeThere some posters have been hinting that Violet must have got into Yale because of who her parents are.
All I said was that she still would need a certain level of intelligence to go there.
Maybe I am wrong. No idea 🤔

I am sure Violet got into Yale on her own merits.

However, for some very wealthy USA alpha parents getting their kids to a prestigious Ivy or high status (for them culturally) university (thinking of some with very high ‘social staus’ Unis in south but not necessarily top academically) admission has been a goal since birth. Think wanting admission to a top sorority for their daughters so advantageous connections/ultimately marriage prospects are there. Some USA Uni degrees are generally lighter on high stakes terminal exams compared to UK too. Credits for taking a class etc.

For ‘sorority is all’ type ££ high status mom a progressive Ivy league destination NOT a key goal, private Unis in the south definitely are.

Some parents game the system from birth but play by the rules as they value education/status etc so highly. Some do this with a next level ruthlessness & determination, the same traits that led to them being in the top 1-5 per cent of wealth in first place I guess. ACT/SAT in Covid years could be swerved which benefitted some. The kid has to be in approx top 20 percent academically & fairly compliant but they then pick softer subjects for them, the kids themselves don’t have too much agency at first but careful seeds have been planted since birth, develop a USP skill of some type if sport with best coaches etc & many go to a University & do well. I don’t think generally culturally in UK we’re quite so determined & ‘happiness’ a goal.

And of the mask wearers you see, how many have the clear ones?

I don't see any mask wearers. Violet Affleck, who this thread is about, has only suggested mask mandates in hospitals. You are trying to use the existence of hearing impairment as an excuse to oppose masks in healthcare. I am saying if this actually ever happened it would be no problem for healthcare workers to put on a clear mask if it was necessary while communicating with a hearing impaired person. They could also temporarily remove the mask if needed but using a clear mask should be fine.

Also, HEPA air filters, which Violet Affleck was primarily talking about and which many people on here are either incapable of understanding or determined to ignore because they do not fit with the ignorant nonsense they want to post, have nothing to do with masks and don't impede communication in any way.

Speaking as one who would like better air quality and is interested in improvement measures, I'd advise anyone wanting to campaign on that to say absolutely nothing at all about mask mandates. They're unpopular and thus unenforceable. It simply detracts from the point.

Unfortunately Violet has already made this particular mistake. Unless someone invents a time machine, it might be in her best interests to disavow her previous comments and state that she now wants to focus on air quality measures.

She only mentioned them in healthcare which is reasonable, but I see what you're saying, people have such a hysterical reactions to masks it is easier not to mention them. In some ways it doesn't make a difference though, many previous posters insisted that air filters, or any reference to cleaning the air whatsoever actually meant masks, so it is very difficult to communicate about air quality.

I think there are a vocal minority who are against masks in healthcare settings.

Baffles me why people are so anti clean air. I kind of get why clean air zones would be unpopular because there are some pay offs e.g. convenience/charges. But what’s the issue with sticking a corsi-rosenthal box or similar in the corner of a classroom?

Covid asked the question how much do we care about kids health. Turns out the answer seems to have been not that much.

Some people think it will harm their immune systems if they don't breathe in pathogens all day. Unfortunately the majority of people have no idea how the immune system works.

What’s really depressing is that nothing seems to have been learnt. We had a worldwide pandemic of a virus that has left hundreds of thousand of people, including my own child, permanently disabled. Yet, because of our politicians deliberate obfuscation of the entire experience, many people remain wilfully ignorant and we now can’t start even a discussion on reducing transmission of air borne viruses without being accused of being bat shit crazy, told to get over it, that Covid’s just a cold, blah blah blah.

The amount of ignorance that still surrounds clean air astounds me. In the last few weeks I’ve attended two GP appointments and two hospital appointments. In each case, consultation rooms I went into were the size of a shoe box, windows sealed shut. Surely by now it should be second nature to open windows in a medical setting, when the weather allows. This is such a simple step to reduce air borne viruses. And it’s free!

How anyone can argue against clean air in schools and hospitals is absolutely beyond me, but here they are on this thread. I’m actually quite envious of their ignorance.

I've not seen recent polling levels so wouldn't want to guess at percentage of support. But opppsition appears to be enough that any attempt at a mandate would create issues. People who advocate for it never seem to proactively address obvious issues relating to exemptions, enforcement and stigma, which doesn't help.

The problem of people assuming masking mission creep is exacerbated by the presence of someone in basically every discussion saying they also want masks in other public spaces- transport is a common favourite, as seen upthread, and stupid.

Edit- to clarify, this is a response to the recent posts about masking

I've not seen recent polling levels so wouldn't want to guess at percentage of support. But opppsition appears to be enough that any attempt at a mandate would create problems. People who advocate for it never seem to proactively address obvious issues relating to exemptions, enforcement and stigma, which doesn't help.

The problem of people assuming masking mission creep is exacerbated by the frequency of advocates saying they also want masks in other public spaces- transport is a common favourite, as seen upthread, and stupid.

Can anyone confirm that the OP isn’t the author of the Daily Mail 🤣 articles. Max is that you - trying to be relevant?

what is quite odd is that she says she’s recovered from her post viral condition and yet she’s mostly always masked, even indoors. For example at this UN meeting, she’s in a large space with plenty of room around her and is still attempting to give a rather muffled speech from behind an unnecessary mask. This does suggest something else is going on. The posters who
mentioned possible mental health/OCD/health and covid anxiety up thread, share my wonderings

sadly not, I wouldn’t mind his salary though

although I did look up Dr. Max’s article
on press reader as it was behind a paywall on news sites.
Here it is to read:

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20250925/281895894411600

It’s not odd.
The research is there to show the effects of infection are cumulative.
If you have already had a post viral illness it puts you are great risk of it happening again.
You seem to have big opinions but few actual facts. (Maybe ones picked up from the daily mail).

Masks work, not 100%, but a well fitting FFP2/3 that she is wearing will significantly reduce both exposure and viral load when worn correctly.

As does cleaning the air and ventilating spaces. (The Houses of Parliament underwent large renovations to their ventilation and filtering of air during 2020, as did lots of theatres in the west end).

Children do suffer with post-viral syndromes. Millions of people in the U.K. alone have Long Covid. We have no long-range data about the safety or danger of repeated infections over decades.
We know that flu can damage the heart, colds can ignite dormant cancer, and many viruses can reactivate (shingles for Chickenpox Pox, ME links to EBV etc).

It is also the UN clean air group meeting. So it’s relevant. She is not the only person wearing and giving evidence in a mask.

If the air was cleaner and better ventilated in shared spaces, then people who are at higher risk, wouldn’t need to take so many precautions to remain healthy.

It’s such a shame you just reduce this down to anxiety and mental health issues. Which is why I do believe you are Max or someone close to or working for him. Getting clicks for your article.

Just because you are unable to think outside your own sphere of ‘knowledge’ and own bias doesn’t mean someone else, who has come to a different conclusion, is mentally ill. Or anxious. Or wrong.

It’s what has happened throughout time. Someone thinks differently to you. So you feel threatened. Something not like you. So to feel safe, due to your own anxiety, you have to pathologise that person, and ostracise them from the rest of the tribe.

Maybe the anxiety and grief is yours to work through. You feel safer if you don’t have a reminder that there was and is the possibility for pandemics. You feel safer if you can compartmentalise the grief or understanding that you continue to put your own health at risk every time you go out. You feel safer if you can whip up enough energy from people “like you” to also ostracise the other person from the tribe.
All this to quell your own anxiety. You make it about someone else’s that you perceive.

Same sort of thing that happened in witch trials and to people like Ignaz Semmelweis.

I understand how viruses are spread and I understand how masks can be helpful.
Can you understand the psychological impact of Covid in people who are still isolating indoors half a decade on and how it may exacerbate health anxiety and OCD?

This is interesting and will please you as it’s not from The Daily Mail:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178121005631

I’m sorry.

I think it’s also telling that many countries made sure their ventilation and filtration systems in government were up to scratch in 2020, even if that meant new installations - England, France, Spain, Australia, America, Canada etc.

There are studies galore about the impacts covid is having, long covid has overtaken asthma as most common chronic illness in America, sick days have increased, working when sick has also increased, long term sick has increased, economists have been raising flags over the costs of infections for years. Scientists, doctors, infectious disease specialists, some politicians have been raising flags for years too. Violet didn’t come up with it on her own.

The guidance on acceptable indoor air quality in classrooms in England is at a much more unhealthy level than the EU, Canada, Australia, America - and it’s still not adhered to. Even if you take covid out of the equation and reduce viruses that are ok to be talked about, childrens’ concentration is improved, attendance is improved, it helps children with asthma and allergies - why don’t parents want this for their children? Even when pressure to attend work/school when unwell or contagious is ramped up, teacher absence mirrors pupil absence. It is ok to increase spending on supply staff though. It is ok to sit in a meeting the teacher session, with a teacher barely able to speak, windows closed and high CO2 reading, talking about the importance of attendance.

There will be children getting reinfected today who will never experience a healthy Christmas again. There will be parents who will never be able to work again, or take their children out for the day on a weekend because of their child bringing home covid again. Oh, and long covid clinics are being closed and not due to demand either.

When someone with long covid becomes a high healthcare user, they have to hope that the person they have an appointment with or someone in the waiting room, unventilated rooms, maskless, coughing isn’t going to permanently affect their health even more. They have to put up with a ton of ignorance about what covid can do and pray that someone can help. If they are admitted into hospital and become further unwell and recognise their symptoms as covid, they may not want to spread it to others on their ward. How easy do you think it is to get tested in hospital now? Ten per cent of people who catch covid in hospital die from it.

I think it’s heinous what is being done to children, but for argument’s sake, assume I didn’t give a damn about health, education, pressure on NHS resources, work, quality of life etc and was only concerned about the economic impact. I would love someone to show me why addressing IAQ is cost-effective for governments, but not for children. I would love someone to show me how we can afford the increasing fallout of doing nothing to address this.