“We are told by leaders across the board that we are the future,” 19-year-old Violet Affleck said at the U.N. Tuesday while wearing an N95 mask. “But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes.”
Affleck’s speech raised greater awareness of the “long Covid crisis” and advocated for more clean air infrastructure, citing scientific research.
“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,” she said.
In a now-deleted post on X cited by multiple outlets, McCain commented on a missive by controversial right-wing personality Oli London, where he criticized Violet Affleck’s speech.
McCain wrote that “every single thing about all of this is why people hate nepo babies so much.”
“She has no business speaking at the UN and what she is speaking about is patently absurd,” McCain said of Affleck, who is studying public health at Yale University and has been an outspoken advocate in the health space.
McCain made a follow-up post Thursday morning, doubling down on her nepo baby dig saying “it takes one to know one.”
“Say whatever you want about me, my parents would have NEVER been okay with me speaking in front of the United Nations at 19 about a health issue I had no background, training or experience in,” McCain said.
She went on to defend her attack claiming that “having famous parents is a double edged sword and if you’re going to put yourself out there, you gotta take the heat (as I have always done).”
“Anyone advocating that I mask my kids all day in 2025 I think is insane, and that is my right,” McCain concluded.
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JAMA Pediatrics reports that long COVID is common, potentially impacting 6 million U.S. children and especially those with asthma. The study claims 10% to 20% of children with a history of COVID-19 are potentially affected by long COVID.