Yesterday I watched the Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearing for the Department of Health and Human Services, featuring HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. To nobody's surprise, as relayed by U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), who is Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Secretary Kennedy "repeatedly lied, dodged . . . questions, and made a number of totally unfounded allegations." Senator Murray continues:
"RFK Jr. is a shameless liar and a dangerous conspiracy theorist — he should have never been confirmed. As much as he lies and deflects, I'm not going to stop holding him accountable for the real harm he is inflicting on people in this country."
In the midst of so many lies and evasions about public health coming from the federal government, it is SO refreshing to encounter the polar opposite from someone else in the public spotlight. I'm referring to this brilliant new article written by Violet Affleck —daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner — and recently published in The Yale Global Health Review.
In the article, entitled, "A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles," Affleck, who just finished her freshman year at Yale, connects our response to the ongoing COVID pandemic (and to other infectious diseases like the looming H5N1 pandemic) with our response to the ongoing climate crisis.
She begins the article by discussing how the "promised end" to the pandemic focused more on "public relations" than "public health." She writes that the notion that we could all just return to normal and pretend COVID was over was "predicated on scientists' hope — since disproven — that vaccination would prevent infection and transmission."
She also calls out public health officials for spreading misinformation that has facilitated unmitigated, ongoing waves of COVID that are still killing thousands weekly and resulting in millions of people (and counting) developing Long COVID. She cites one study showing that a quarter of young, fit Marines were impacted by Long COVID, and other studies that found that at least ten percent of COVID infections lead to Long COVID. She also explains the various manifestations of Long COVID, citing study after study after study.
Affleck spends a good deal of time in the article discussing myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), which is present in about half of Long COVID cases. She explains that the "hallmark symptom" of ME is post-exertional malaise (PEM), which she describes as "a kind of bodily overdraft fee that hits when people with ME expend energy beyond the slim 'energy envelope' available to them." People with ME (pwME) must learn, then, to pace themselves — to carefully mete "out one's limited supply of energy in hopes that the body can put whatever remains toward improvement."
Drawing on the idea of "pacing," Affleck urges us to look to mutual aid organizations for models of how to address crises such as climate change and COVID. She states:
the climate resilience our society needs to build relies upon the skills and systems of pacing that disabled and chronically ill people have built to manage both their own symptoms and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
She provides the terrific example of Mask Bloc LA (MBLA), a "collective of disabled and COVID-responsive organizers in Los Angeles" who were already prepared, because of their ongoing COVID collective care, to deliver thousands of respirators as soon as the LA wildfires began in early January 2025, well before the City of Los Angeles addressed the situation. She explains:
MBLA's leap into action was a picture-perfect illustration of the reality that no crisis is contained: while the city government's indifference to the ongoing pandemic – our mayor floated a mask ban this summer – hindered its response to another airborne emergency, COVID organizers' daily refusal to abandon each other to the pandemic allowed MBLA to rapidly expand their work once the general population was back in crisis mode.
Affleck argues that we can learn the skills and dispositions of "centering disability justice" and "refusing eugenicist logics" from groups like Mask Bloc LA, who are carrying on the legacy of other mutual aid organizations such as the Black Panthers and ACT UP.
This isn't the first time Violet Affleck has been a public example of masking, and a vocal advocate for facing the harsh reality that COVID and Long COVID are still here and still affecting millions, and for taking precautions to protect ourselves and our communities. In July 2024, in a speech in front of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, she stated:
"To confront the Long COVID crisis I demand mask availability, air filtration, and far-UVC light in government facilities, including jails and detention centers, and mask mandates in county medical facilities" . . . "We must expand availability of high-quality, free tests and treatment, and most importantly, the county must oppose mask bans for any reason. They do not keep us safer. They make the vulnerable members of our community less safe and make everyone less able to participate in Los Angeles together."
I'm sure her current, brilliant, incredibly well-written and well-cited article won't be the last time we hear from her. Thank you, Violet Affleck, for being a better advocate for public health than pretty much anyone currently in charge of our public health systems.
The Yale Global Health Review is described on its website as "the premiere undergraduate-run publication at Yale University covering topics in health." The Review features "original research, thoughtful commentary, and balanced reporting with a global health focus" with the goal of bridging "scholarship and practice," connecting "students and faculty," and bringing together "voices from across a spectrum of disciplines and sectors." I encourage you to read Violet Affleck's full article here — and to go support your local mask bloc!
