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Comment by r_singh | Hacker News Reader

I'm confused by the negativity here. The guy's child is not okay. Me being a nobody could get a special visa to visit Germany from India on requesting.

Of course, if someone wants to visit a country for an HCP of their choice they should be allowed to.

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You're confused by the fact that people are fed up with various elites pushing for restrictive policies, then routinely bypassing and ignoring those policies when it comes to their personal lives? What is so confusing here?

This is a medevac flight and Auckland is the closest major city to where he was located. It's not clear that he's being treated differently than other people would be in the same situation.

The article claims he is.

>It's not clear that he's being treated differently than other people would be in the same situation.

Empathy and benefit of the doubt for billionaires who vacation in Fiji and whose kids get a medevac flight to a major city when something goes wrong would look a bit more sane if those were commonly afforded to normal people as well. Which they aren't.

If the guy was going there for a vacation, yes I would 100% agree with your sentiment. But from the story it sounds like his son had to be medivaced from Fiji.

Since this is a medical emergency I would imagine that they would grant this to whoever, not just Page.

Yes. Im sure they charter 4200 kilometer medevac flights for anybody, while country is on total lock down, and the emergency is so urgent whole thing takes >24 hours before the flight even takes off.

>“The day after the application was received, a New Zealand air ambulance staffed by a New Zealand ICU nurse-escort medevaced the child and an adult family member from Fiji to New Zealand,”

https://apnews.com/article/technology-lifestyle-travel-new-z...

Reminder, Sydney is merely 1 hour extra flight time away and borders were wide open in January.

Never take a statement from Larry Page that his kid is sick and he needs to move to NZ at face value. Larry has a long history of exploiting the law to get what he wants. Also, he could have returned to the US, it's not like flying to NZ suddenly saved his kid where going to the US couldn't have.

Why is it anyone's business where he decides to go and take his kid? That's his personal life...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28096840

His presence in Fiji was already controversial as he entered Fiji via his wealth, even as the country closed its borders to traditional travelers. It was on the basis of "medical donations" as reported by the press.

Nobody here would want to endanger the life of a 12 year old and hopefully his child is doing fine now.

It has been reported by the press, several times, he was spending most his time at the remote Island of Tavarua with both a 12 year and another child of 10: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavarua

The main resort there will ask you to sign this waiver who says between other things:

"...I understand that the Island of Tavarua is a remote, undeveloped island. Further, I understand that the Released Parties do not provide medical services and that medical facilities do not exist on the Island of Tavarua. If I am injured, I understand that I will have to be transported to mainland Fiji to receive medical services and that the Released Parties do not provide such transportation..."

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58f5426737c581de8a8d7...

The main issue is that the NZ government, under the excuse of privacy, did not make it clear if this was really an emergency and his child needed urgent medical care, or just needed medical care not available at Fiji and a billionaire could not be bothered to return back to his country or to Australia who had easier entry requirements, and was roughly at the same distance.

The fact that it was a air medvac that not says much. It was not disclosed if it was an airplane with special medical facilities or just Larry Page private jet. It was only mentioned a request was received January 11, 2021 no comment on how much time it took to approve it and when the flight actually happened.

I am sure any journalist worth it's salt should be able to track easily any medvac Auckland - Fiji flights on 11, 12 or later days. If the flight happened a few days after the approval, then it was just planned medical care not available in Fiji.

If he really loves Fiji so much, maybe he can help donate an Hospital, sounds like they really need it, and its probably pocket change:

"UN's Fiji medical evacuation flight unfair, says human rights advocate" https://www.stuff.co.nz/tarana/125963687/uns-fiji-medical-ev...

And...not do a little of Bellingcat style, but this looks like this probably was the outbound flight:

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=c8276a&lat=-23.171&lon=...

Returning the next day...

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=c8276a&lat=-38.872&lon=...

A bit speculative, agreed...for an armchair detective with a brandy on the hand... It matches the only airplane from Air Ambulance companies in NZ, that went out of NZ direction Fiji that day and returned to Auckland the next day from the corresponding direction. ADSB gets lost after a little bit over the ocean so not 100% sure final destination or origin. Really a wonderful place for billionaires to disappear from the common gents.

“The day after the application was received, a New Zealand air ambulance staffed by a New Zealand ICU nurse-escort medevaced the child and an adult family member from Fiji to New Zealand,” https://apnews.com/article/technology-lifestyle-travel-new-z...

Willing to wait extra 24 hours instead of flying straight to Australia, doesnt sound like emergency.

"Covid 19 coronavirus: Dying man denied last chance to get home as emergency managed isolation spot rejected"

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-dying-man...

Yes, the issue is that regular people are denied the same chance.

This doesn't seem like a fair comparison. The person in the article you posted was terminally ill and wanted to return for personal reasons. Based on the posted article, Page is seeking medical care for his child that cannot be provided in Fiji. In fact, the article explicitly mentions that New Zealand has two separate categories in which both incidents explicitly fall under. Page's case is category 1 while the man in your article is in category 2 based on my reading.

It's not a medical emergency though, it's someone's wishes. Cruel but not the same.

This story is awful, but you should also know that Trev Ponting's application decision was reversed 24 hours after this made headlines. Yes, it should absolutely have been approved in the first place, but he made it home to Christchurch in February and passed away in April.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/12410323...

I can see why there is a difference between being medevacked (accompanying a minor child with a medical need) and someone who wants to see their family and friends before they pass away (tragic, but not an urgent medical need).

But he didn't have an urgent medical need his kid had. Why let him get in as well?

Medical evacuation is common enough--I'm guessing that there are policies / laws in New Zealand to keep parents with their minor children. There are medical evacuations across borders all the time so I doubt this is treading any new ground.

People generally consider it horrifying to forcibly separate parents from minor children, unless it's in the child's interest. "Or else your child doesn't get treatment" counts as force.

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