As UK Covid cases rise, new insight into the debate over lockdown restrictions back in March

I've obtained this email from Govt's Chief Scientific Adviser

Vallance says he "argued stronger than anyone for action for lockdown" but received a "telling off" from senior officials The "telling off" was from the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and the Cabinet Secretary

The email, obtained via FOI request, appears to be a discussion about a Sunday Times article on 23rd May, criticising the delays in announcing a full lockdown:

thetimes.co.uk/article/three-…

**Update on "Excess Deaths" in Pakistan**

June 2020 saw significantly higher burials in Karachi govt graveyards than any other month in the past two years

The rise is likely due to some undetected Covid deaths & people not getting treated for other diseases

Data ⬇️

@uszahid Burials:

June '18: 1,767

June '19: 2,375

June '20: 3,594

One imp caveat - there were only a small number of officially recorded Covid burials (118) in these Karachi graveyards in June, far fewer than the total number of official Covid deaths (around 800)

*Important* new insight into rise in unexplained deaths in Pakistan during the coronavirus pandemic from official data we've obtained:

Lahore, June 2019: 1,744 registered deaths

Lahore, June 2020: 3,723 registered deaths

Lahore, June 2020 official Covid deaths: 487

w/@uszahid In Karachi, we got figures for burials in 32 government graveyards

June 2019 - 2,375 burials

June 2020 - 3,594 burials

June 2020, official Covid burials (in these graveyards) - 118

I've spent the last week speaking to doctors from major hospitals across Pakistan.. All of them were really worried that the country's healthcare system will soon be overwhelmed by Coronavirus patients, after seeing a substantial rise in cases since lockdown was eased 2 week ago In Karachi, official data shows there is only a handful of ICU beds for Covid patients free across all dedicated hospitals, some days as few as 3... That's for a city of around 15 million people

Just back from a trip to the village in Pakistani Administered Kashmir the #LondonBridge attacker Usman Khan's family originally came from... He was born in the UK and all the evidence I've seen clearly shows he was radicalised in Britain, but I wanted to find people who knew him The village is outside the city of Kotli - quite a pretty drive, the white capped mountains in the background are across the Line of Control in Indian Administered Kashmir... Usman Khan was convicted in the UK in 2012 of planning to set up a militant training camp here

I was meant to cover the #Hajj this year for the BBC, but logistical issues / tensions in Asia meant I couldn’t.. still I wanted to share with you the beautiful story of one pilgrim.. this is Talib Jan, a poor shepherd from northern Pakistan: He saved up for 6 years to go on Haj Talib Jan is from the Diamer region, I’ve been there and it’s beautiful, but also very remote.. in his whole life he had never once left the mountains around his village... we met in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad as he prepared to fly to Saudi. It was his first time away from home

Just back from a trip to Pakistan Administered Kashmir... Amongst the ppl I talked to was a former jihadi fighter... He told me he was born in Indian Administered Kashmir, but at the age of 15 witnessed a mass rape by Indian security forces, and that's what led him to fight... I asked what he would do, if he were a 15 year old now, in IAK: "I would make the same decision as I made back then... but the young people nowadays are much tougher... they will bring death to India"

Took a trip to a Pakistani village literally just in front of the border with India earlier this week, to find out about the effects of cross border shelling... the situation there was so heartbreaking: This family’s house in Pakistani Administered Kashmir is less than 1km from an Indian army post, and close to a Pakistani position... their home was partially destroyed earlier this week by Indian shelling...