Overview

• Speaking at the United Nations gathering on healthy indoor air in New York, the 19‑year‑old Yale student delivered her remarks while wearing a KN95 mask.
• She urged leaders to reinstate mask mandates and to build clean‑air infrastructure, saying filtered indoor air should be treated like potable water as a basic human right.
• Affleck criticized adults for minimizing airborne transmission and long COVID, warning that young people’s present is being taken by an ongoing pandemic.
• Her speech cited studies and experts, including Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki, to underscore risks from reinfection and persistent symptoms.
• Coverage noted no immediate policy response, though Affleck’s advocacy follows her 2024 appeal to Los Angeles County for mask availability, air filtration, and UV technologies while opposing mask bans.