In 2024, Affleck testified against a mask ban proposed by Los Angeles mayor
Karen Bass in a public hearing at a
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting, saying that she contracted a post-viral condition, similar to
long COVID, in 2019. In May 2025, she published "A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles" in the
Yale Global Health Review. On September 23, 2025, she addressed the
United Nations on the subject of
air pollution and the need for masking to prevent the spread of long COVID. She described herself as "furious" on the behalf of children who had contracted the condition. "It is a neglect of the highest order to look children in the eyes and say, 'We knew how to protect you and we didn't do it. We have access to a technology to prevent airborne disease, something that millions of our ancestors and millions of people around the world today would kill for, and we refuse to use it." In her speech, she characterized filtered air as a
human right. ==References==