the u.s. passes a grim milestone. it has the most coronavirus virus deaths in the world. this as a "new york times" report sheds light on how much the trump administration knew about the disease. we'll tell you about the reports that the warnings were delayed,

dismissed and ignored. and this hour, the hope holds easter sunday mass via livestream as christians around the world celebrate under lockdown. we're live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta. welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and all around the world. happy easter. cnn newsroom starts right now. easter is supposed to be a day of hope. it will be remembered this year for the covid-19 pandemic. johns hopkins reports more than 1.7 million cases across the world with more than 108,000 people killed. and the u.s. enters a holiday withholidaywith the highest num of deaths. new york state alone has more infections than any other

country on the planet. catholics around the world are waiting to hear from pope franchise as francis as he livestreams his mass. this is live video. he told people they should not yield to fear. this comes as many christians mark the day isolated in their homes instead of going to church. our top story, you may recall that u.s. president trump touted easter as the perfect time to open the country. it's one of many decisions the "new york times" has chronicled that ran counter to the advice of key members of his administration. the newspaper also outlined warnings that went unheeded for weeks when time was a luxury the country did not have. white house correspondent jeremy diamond has the details. >> according to the "new york times," it was the third week of february when the government's

top public health experts concluded that aggressive social distancing measures would need to be implemented in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. but when that decision was made by those public health experts, the president was traveling in india. the experts decided they should brief him in person when he returned. but that flight from india back to washington was a momentous one. the president grew furious at watching the stock market crash after one of the government's top public health experts warned there would be severe disruptions to daily life. instead of that briefing that the president was set to receive upon his return from india to implement those social distancing guidelines, the president held a news conference putting vice president mike pence in charge of the coronavirus efforts and from there we know that the white house's response began to shift, focusing on public messaging, trying to assure the american people that they had the response under control. now, we also know that beyond

that briefing and beyond those conclusions by those public health experts, there were warnings inside the trump administration in january as well as in february. we reported, of course, on the memo by peter navarro in late january warning in trillions of dollars of economic losses and millions of americans could be infected with this virus. the alarm was also sounded back in january about the potential for a global pandemic. the president, meanwhile, though, while we know what he was thinking at the time because he was telling the public, the president, in january and in february, repeatedly downplaying the threat of this coronavirus pandemic, insisting that he had it under control. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. i spoke with a professor of government at essex university

in the uk. >> a lot of the warnings came in january from the secretary of health, from intelligence reports and also from his own trade adviser, peter navarro. they made it clear that this is a very aggressive virus and the u.s. is going to need to respond immediately and in a very forceful way. he didn't pay attention to this. as the report mentioned, by mid to late february, everyone in his own administration believed it was going to be dangerous but it took them another three weeks to convince him to act. as a result, there has been complete chaos and confusion and total lack of coordination. >> right. we want to read an excerpt from the "new york times" report and this refers to the plane ride home from india when mr. trump visited there a few weeks ago. here it is here on the 18-hour plane ride home, mr. trump fumed after he watched the stock

market's crash after a cdc's official's comments. he was furious, he called the health and human services secretary when he landed february 26th raging that the official had scared people unnecessarily. it did seem that the president continued to downplay the severity of what this country was about to face. and you've got to wonder why. >> right. and what the reporting was insinuating was this was because he was really eyeing what was going to happen to him in 2020 and everything was banking on having a robust economy, with full levels of employment. this was going to really wreck havoc on the economy because nothing is worst than uncertainty and of course a pandemic is going to cause great levels of uncertainty. he didn't want to project an image that would cause fear and confusion. he was hoping to calm everybody down. by doing so, he downplayed the

threat and refused to act. it was mentioned many times in this report, that ended up causing all kinds of delays when they needed to be procuring protective equipment for hospital workers, when they needed to be procuring ventilators, ensuring there were enough hospital beds and he decided that he wanted to downplay it because he was worried that this would then affect his chances in 2020. >> right. he reportedly is fixated on the stock market. of course very concerning about the economy. the "new york times" reports that a national security adviser said in an oval office meeting the economy would be destroyed by the pandemic regardless of whether the white house stepped up to take strict measures. the indications are the president was focused on the stock market and perhaps that kept him from looking at the health consequences that would

lead to what americans are now facing. >> right. and, remember, this is a president that hasn't tended to believe in science. he believes in his gut. his use of gut decision-making often makes it difficult to respond to a pandemic. we know there's controversies over who disbanded the pandemic office or whether it just, you know, disbanded on its own. but it made it very difficult for this administration to respond quickly and to understand the severity of these types of crises. the economy in all countries that have to deal are going to face a severe recession. there's no way around it. the point is to try to save lives and ensure that we have fewer deaths than we could have and he didn't act quickly enough. that's what the report was indicating. as the full picture of the steps taken by the white house or in this case not emerge, the u.s. continues to grapplewith

the realities of pandemic every day. among the latest in a series of grim milestones, the u.s. has more reported deaths than any other nation. still, there is an encouraging sign, even more indications that the curve of hospitalizations is flattening in hard-hit new york. let's discuss this with a virologist at lancaster university. good morning to you. thanks so much for coming on. we appreciate it. >> good morning, natalie. >> as we said, new york continues to see horrific death rates. however, the governor is saying the curve continues to flatten, is that reason for enencouragement? >> yes, if we look into the data, the social distancing or the restrictions have been applied, it usually takes three weeks to eight weeks when the impacts start to appear.

of course the duration will depend on the intensity of these social distancing measures that have been put in place, the timing of it and the way it is being practiced by the residents. so looking onto the data, it seems like it is really good news from the new york perspective and it appeared to be coming up relatively earlier compared to other countries where the social distancing and lockdown were applied. but that is really good news on both ends. first, the number of cases for hospitalization are decreasing. this is a testament, this is proof that social distancing or the disruption that you're observing is working and will work. emphasize would be that carry on with this disruption. unfortunately this is a disruption, but this is the way forward because we were left with few choices to contain the infection. >> social distancing is working. you got to keep it going because there's a long way to go here and some u.s. states have not

peaked yet. in the meantime, president trump has been talking about wanting to open up the economy somewhat. he doesn't exactly make that decision, it's up to the city's mayors and governors but what are the important factors in making such a determination? >> well, i would like to emphasize on one of the very important thing, as a virologist i can feel now, at this moment the whole scenario of tackling this contagion, we've seen a nationalistic approach. we have to avoid the nationalistic policies and move onto international and global cooperation. putting into the perspective that even if the disease is under control in new york, other states might also pose the risk in the near future as well. until the whole country is seeing a flattening of the curve or seeing the whole -- the risk

would still hang, the efforts should be not only to work onto this state level, but also the country level, but again helping the national and international stakeholders to really help to control this contagion because that is ultimately will be defining when the economy will be coming back and when we can be coming back to normal. >> right. and the key, of course, we keep hearing about is testing and that is still lagging behind. we hear from dr. fauci that an antibody test could be close. how critical would that be? >> that's now the future. the reason is, once you have a certain level of infection in the community, then there would be some factors to decide when the lockdown need to be removed and also the social distancing may need to be relaxed. and that depends on the antibodies in the population. for that one, the testing is

important, not only just the availability of those testing but also to ensure that they are good enough. for example, the one that is being applied now is around 80% to 90% effective. there would be some false negatives, meaning they wouldn't have the antibody but they tested positive or the otherwise. really emphasize should be on the efficacy on the diagnostics. >> antibodies has become a keyword, has it not, and, yes, bring it on. we appreciate your expertise. thank you so much. we'll talk with you again. >> thank you. >> thank you. it is easter for many christians today when believers celebrate jesus's resurrection from the dead. that victory over death makes this the holiest day on the

christian calendar. and pope francis is leading a lonely easter mass at st. peters basilica right now as the usual crowds are kept away because of the pandemic. the pope will also give the traditional easter blessing a bit later. we are often here on easter mornings talking about the pope's delivery and the throngs of people, but this is an easter in italy like no other. >> reporter: that's right, natalie. i was thinking, normally i'm down at st. peter's square with all of the beautiful flowers and the thousands of people who start to come to italy at this time of year. this is a very different scene. something somber about it which is appropriate. although easter signifies new life, there are many people today that are having their first easter without a loved one in their lives who may have died

recently from the virus. plenty of people in hospital as well fighting for their lives. so it's sort of a strange juxtaposition of this celebration of new life at this time. pope francis, of course, has remembered the people in hospital. the people who are working. the doctors and nurses to help save those lives throughout this past week in his services. he's talked a lot about prisoners and homeless and the poor. those are people that he normally talks about. he says they're overlooked at this time and he's donated 100,000 euros from his personal fund to the catholic charity organization that helps the poor and the italian bishops have donated a hundred million euros to that same organization. some of what they're doing with that money is helping families that are obviously out of work and having economic difficulty at this time.

we know that today, easter, will be a strange day for millions of people around the world. just as this past week, those who have been celebrating passover have had to look towards new technology. we've seen meals on zoom, drive-in services, we've seen drive-through confessions. there's a lot of creativity of people, especially thanks to technology, that are able to feel a little bit closer together at this time. natalie? >> maybe once we're all through this, we'll look back at what they had to do to celebrate easter in 2020. we'll talk with you again later this hour as the pope continues to lead his services. thanks so much. british prime minister boris johnson remains in the hospital as he continues to battle coronavirus. we'll have a live update ahead and his message for the workers who cared for him. plus, iran is beginning to

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with i owe them my life. those words from british prime minister boris johnson to the workers at the london hospital where he is recovering from coronavirus. mr. johnson is sounding very grateful there in his first public statement since he was taken to st. thomas's hospital one week ago. the uk is nearing a tragic milestone, almost 10,000 people there have died from the virus with almost 80,000 total confirmed cases. for more on these statistics, let's go to cnn's nick paton walsh. he's outside the hospital that has been treating mr. johnson and mr. johnson has had a short statement about his recovery, nick. >> reporter: yeah, natalie. you can hear behind me there the sirens that have become the ubiquitous part of the landscape. during this public holiday, increasingly busy.

and london is hearing the news of boris johnson's increasingly good prognosis. he's released his first statement in which he thanks the workers who provide free health care to all britains, including him, the government suggesting he's exactly the same treatment as a normal britain. i think it's fair to suggest he's gotten some better treatment. he's recovered. he got oxygen treatments and was said to be waving when he came out a matter of days ago, and now has released this statement in which he says, i can't thank you enough to the nhs workers. i owe you my life. a sense of gravity of the problem he was facing himself. he's not back at normal work as far as we understand. but this separate drama of one very important man's fate here has conflicted at times with a worsening picture for ordinary britains here. when i tell you that 917 people

were reported to have died in the last 24 hours alone, that is frankly a number we should pause and try and take stock of. nearly 1,000 dead reported a day bringing the uk close to a 10,000-dead figure toll which is staggering in itself. and then you have to ask the next question, is that the entirety of the picture? and some government statistics suggest, no, that actually that is part of the picture. that in fact during one of the early weeks of this particular outbreak there may well have been twice as many deaths that occurred half of which weren't reported. to be part of the daily toll, you have to be tested in hospital and die. so few britains are being tested. there are many cases it seems that aren't just reported. those figures are uncertain. uncertain too is a key figure about the exit strategy for the united kingdom and that's about

how many people in the uk have already had this infection. the government experts asked in the last 72 hours or so suggest they thought that was in single digits, which would put the uniquk behind spain. that's about three. getting out of these social restrictions will be more complicated because of the possibility of a second wave. the uk dealing with an awfulness of these startling numbers at this point which set to continue in the week ahead. natalie? >> and still such challenges around testing which mirror the same things that we're seeing here in the united states. it's hard to fathom. thank you so much, nick. iran is authorizing what it calls low-risk businesses to reopen around the country with the exception of the capital tehran. iran is opening shops even as the number of coronavirus cases

continues to rise with nearly 2,000 new cases reported in the past 24 hours. cnn's sam kylie is covering this story for us. is this semiopening considered a risky move, sam? >> it is considered a risky move, natalie. but one -- and this is a matter of internationally being discussed in the united states and britain especially where it would appear the authorities were certainly behind in terms of getting -- dealing with the initial infections of the coronavirus. iran after china had been the second worst level of infections in the world. but of course it's been rapidly overtaken if the government figures are to be believed with over 4,300 deaths. over 70,000 people confirmed as having the virus. but the iranians are facing, natalie, very severe economic

sanctions which had already crippled the economy and arguably crippled their capacity to respond to an epidemic on this scale. they've been asking for a $5 billion bailout from the international monetary fund which the united states is aggressively trying to block. it's the u.s. that has imposed these sanctions which mean that the iranians can't even take donations from european donors, for example, they have to take donations in kind because they risk in europe falling foul of the united states' federal banking legislation which is crippling the financial sector in iran with the oil, of course, capacity. even if there were a decent oil price crippled by the sanctions. the iranians are trying to move in that context towards a lightning of the lockdown. all cities apart from tehran, which will be opened up somewhat in about a week's time, are

seeing a limited amount of return to work capacity, two-thirds of government workers have been asked to return to their place of work. the social gathering areas will remain closed. the idea being that they could restart the crippled economy. this is the sort of conundrum that is being faced all over the world as this virus epidemic or pandemic begins to flatten out. at what point to governments decide to release the population back into economic activity and risk another surge. and the president is cautioning against two rapid return to normality there. >> right. leaders want to help people by getting the economies going back. but as you say, it is a risky

thing and must be done so carefully. thank you for your report. japan's prime minister is touting an unproven medicine as a covid-19 treatment. next hear how his advice may differ from president trump's backing of a malaria drug. we'll have a live report from tokyo. at leaf blowers. you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. and you should be mad your smart fridge

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is endorsing a different but also unproven drug. for more about this, cnn's will ripley is following this story. he joins me now from tokyo. hello, to you, will. what is mr. abe touting? >> reporter: happy easter to you, by the way. look, prime minister shinzo abe, he is excited about this drug called avigan because he says that clinical trials which are limited in japan, showed very promising results. he's in the process of distributing this drug to 20 different countries, giving it away for free, hoping other countries will start their own trials so they can get a body of data together. they're starting clinical trials in the u.s. state of massachusetts very soon. epidemiologists have told me that the best hope at this stage is to find an existing drug that works against the coronavirus because it might be quite a while if ever before they find a

vaccine. as the world battles the novel coronavirus pandemic, u.s. president donald trump and japanese prime minister shinzo abe are peddling possible treatments. trump is touting hydroxychloroquine, despite slim evidence its actually effective against the virus. >> what do you have to lose? what do you have to lose? >> reporter: for abe it's avigan, the japanese brand name for favipiravir. we will triple the current stockpile of avigan and expand the use for 2 million people he says. researchers point out the key differences between the pills. >> reporter: is what shinzo abe doing any different from what president trump is doing? >> marginally different. favipiravir has been around for quite a while. unlike hydroxychloroquine, it has been used to test its efficacy on other viruses.

>> reports in china do show favipiravir has been effective in treating covid-19. clinical trials are under way in japan and set to begin in the u.s. japan plans to provide the drug for free to 20 countries. there are potentially dangerous side effects including birth defects. if someone has coronavirus, would you recommend that they take this drug? >> this covid-19, what do you choose? >> hydroxychloroquine can also have serious side effects like heart trouble and eye damage. researchers around the world are testing all kinds of drugs. they may be the only hope until a vaccine is developed. if a vaccine is developed. patients under quarantine, isolated in their homes can battle loneliness and desperation. >> you feel really depressed. >> this woman's tokyo apartment

is full of supplies. she has to wait up to ten days for her coronavirus test results. she is frustrated. >> japan hasn't set up any kind of of a computer system. even the test results will come in letter. so no email. that makes me really get anxious. and getting test results as soon as possible is more important than stressing on using avigan at this stage. >> she wonders why her government is focusing on an unproven drug instead of speeding up the testing process for patients in limbo. japan wants to make avigan available for 2 million people and based on the number that is we're seeing, they very well might need it. every day for the last five days, there's been a record spike in the number of cases. 714 cases nationwide just yesterday. nearly 200 of those right here

in tokyo despite a state of emergency and encouraging people to socially distance. japan has more work to do in terms of reducing human-to-human contact if they want to slow what the government says is on the verge of becoming an explosive infection rate. >> that's sad to see, but it is an indication that japan made the right call in postponing the olympics, doesn't it, will? there's no way that was going to happen. appreciate your reporting. we'll wait and see what happens with this drug. thanks, will. shocking new details on the rollout of coronavirus testing in the united states to share with you. cnn has learned some private labs were eager to develop testing as early as january, anticipating the inevitable outbreak, but as cnn's drew griffin reports, the federal government actively blocked those tests from being produced and made available to the public. >> reporter: as coronavirus was silently racing around the world

in late january and early february, the federal government not only failed to use the massive arsenal of hundreds of laboratories across the united states for emergency testing, it actually left roadblocks in place to prevent nongovernment labs from assisting. that is according to documents obtained by cnn and interviews with more than a dozen scientists and physicians involved in coronavirus testing. >> at the very beginning of this pandemic, it was the federal government that had the sole ability to do the testing and made it difficult for private labs, for university labs to make their own tests based on certain regulatory hurdles. >> reporter: several hospitals and universities said they saw the pandemic approaching, were developing their own tests as early as january to detect the virus. but the red tape with the fda's regulatory process prevented them from moving forward. meaning, labs sat idle. >> rather than enlisting the tremendous strength and power of the u.s. laboratory capacity,

getting everybody working on this and creating tests and having widespread test availability, we had cdc trying to keep running everything by itself. >> reporter: the federal government was prepared to enforce the rules, sending this memo on february 6th telling state health departments to police against labs using their own coronavirus tests. the reasoning behind the tight regulations were good, assure the safety of efficacy of tests. but dr. glen morris of the university of florida says the fda rules were written for normal situations, not a crisis. >> when we we suddenly hit the point when we were looking at china and seeing what was going on there, what we needed was extremely aggressive leadership. we got to move fast because otherwise we're going to run into a problem. >> reporter: the problem developed as soon as the cdc rolled out its own test for verification. i didn't work and weeks were lost as the cdc scrambled to make a new test. >> we really were in basically

pause within the public health system. and meanwhile the academic laboratories also were not able to test because the regulations didn't allow it at that time. >> what's even worse in 2018, after the zika outbreak, the cdc came up with a plan to avoid the testing disaster that's happening. cnn obtained a copy of this memorandum of understanding between the commercial and public labs and the cdc that was supposed to increase national laboratory testing in an emergency by encouraging commercial labs early in the response. it didn't work. this doctor who runs the laboratory services for north shore university health system in illinois was one of the labs pushing to launch its own test and was stopped by overbearing red tape. >> it seems like this has been a bit of a failure. >> i think there's room for improvement. we've had a number of

laboratories and manufacturers and groups that are not all working together in a coordinated fashion. >> in a statement to cnn, the fda insists there was nothing wrong in its process and instead blames individual lab delays where labs did not understand the fda process and mistakenly believed there was more work involved. despite that, the fda did establish new guidelines on february 29th, allowing labs to begin testing. experts tell cnn it was just too late. >> in a written response to cnn's questions, the cdc said it did keep laboratory communities up to date and informed of what was happening, but the cdc did not answer questions on why the agency didn't pursue those laboratories getting involved in this massive testing program sooner. drew griffin, cnn, atlanta. there will be parties again soon,

and family gatherings. there will be parades and sporting events and concerts. to help our communities when they come back together, respond to the 2020 census now. spend a few minutes online today to impact the next 10 years of healthcare, infrastructure and education. go to 2020census.gov and respond today to make america's tomorrow brighter. it's time to shape our future.

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francis. he is on this easter day a pope without a flock, at least, at st. peters right now. pope francis is leading an extraordinary easter sunday mass at the vatican. but the basilica is almost empty because of the pandemic. people have found new ways to celebrate easter and delia gallagher joins me now with more about that. >> reporter: a very quiet kind of easter here in rome and for the millions of people on lockdown around the world this easter and passover. here's a look at how they're adjusting to the changes. it's a strange time to be celebrating but perhaps now more than ever the anxiety rituals of easter and passover bring us together.

in jerusalem, the streets said to have been walked by kris before his crucifixion normally crowded with pilgrims is empty like never before. but a few representing the many carry the memory. ♪ >> translator: today, lord, during holy week, the whole world is ravaged by a pandemic that is wreaking death and immobilizing us. >> reporter: and at notre dame, prayers are raised for the covid-19 victims and their families. and the creativity of community, a priest in ireland offering blessings from an old pope mobile used by john paul ii. and in germany, drive-in services.

>> translator: we've been at a distance. we stay at home. churches are closed. right now, for easter, there's a need to come together this week. >> reporte >> reporter: passover takes on new meaning today. >> celebrating passover as we hope the coronavirus will pass us over. >> jews celebrate while social distancing. ♪ >> reporter: governments continue to battle the global pandemic urging all to stay home this easter. >> through the sacrifices so many have made. >> reporter: -- it may be song that can unite us. ♪

>> it will be a prayer and as a consequence, it will not be important who is present physically but rather who wants to be with me spiritually in that moment. >> reporter: a celebration of human spirit a, a prayer of harmony in a time of hardship. >> that will be a nice treat to hear him this easter. you can catch him on his youtube site at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. natalie? >> it is not to be missed, absolutely. how wonderful that will be. thank you for that report. i like the passover comment, the coronavirus will passover us. thank you so much. it's good to see you. after a break, millions are using the popular app zoom to communicate, but there's a problem and i'll be joined by an expert to help explain that and how you can keep your privacy safe.

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weeks into a worldwide lockdown, the company zoom has emerged as a new home staple. millions of people are using the app to video conference, but there are growing concerns about

zoom's security. the ceo and founder of zoom told cnn the company is working tirelessly to make sure the app is safe. here's what he had to say. >> at zoom, we take actions quickly and we had missteps over the past week and our intentions are good and now we learn a lesson. we doubled down on privacy and security before we do anything. think about that. we need to take step back and focus on privacy and we want zoom to be the privacy company. >> let's talk more about it with chief executive of cybersecurity experts. thank you so much for coming onto talk about this. we just heard the founder there of zoom saying they fixed the missteps. do you think so? >> no, not yet. i don't. i think they're doing a lot towards it. way back in july last year,

there were concerns raised around zoom and i know they've been addressing it. i have some sympathy. they've gone from 10 million users in december last year to over 200 million. and as you said, it seems to be the go-to app to use for video conferencing. >> if you're not zooming, you're uncool. you're totally uncool. [ laughter ] a growing number of companies and countries have banned zoom. give us an example of the security threat that it presents. >> zoom claims to have encryption, the way that whatsapp works. which means that devices create a unique connection between the devices. it using advanced encryption standard and zoom had claimed to use that. but some reports have suggested in fact it's a lesser encryption that is used and it could be intercepted by third parties.

if you're handling sensitive information, business information, you shouldn't be using zoom. >> right. and -- but governments are businesses, schools are using the platform. what advice do you have for folks that have to do this right now and don't have another alternative? how can they keep their system safe? is there any chance they can do that? >> yes, there is. i think so. certainly around schools and schooling those leading fitness classes or teaching at home, on the 5th of april, zoom issued new security measures. and they have some very good advice, but it needs you to follow the instructions about how to set it up, utilize the waiting room to ensure that those are the people who have been invited. guard the invite for a zoom meeting to ensure that only those people are there.

and when the meeting starts, you're able to lock the meeting. even as somebody else can get hold of the password and user name, they can't join. from that perspective, for schools and those who don't have any choice, there are good measures they can take to protect themselves. >> that's very good advice for people to take those p precautions. it seems like hackers must be taking advantage of much of the world on lockdown and using this app. >> yes. unfortunately hackers are using lots of things. we have seen since the covid crisis a 30 fold increase in hackers activities from atps and cyber crime and just hackers. and sadly, while most of society is joined together to fight covid-19, there's always that in a nefarious element that will use it for their own gains. >> one has to be very, very

careful. thanks for joining us. appreciate it. >> thank you very much, natalie. and happy easter to you all. >> happy easter to you. appreciate that. thank you all for watching "cnn newsroom." we want to leave you this hour with video of the pope on this easter sunday when he is all by himself. no flock but people watching via stream. i'm natalie allen. "new day" is next on cnn.

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on this easter sunday, the united states finds itself in a sobering and tragic position. it now has the highest number of reported coronavirus deaths in the world. >> good news is the curve of the increase is continuing to flatten. >> ever since being diagnosed, i have been more like america's dad than ever before. don't worry now. don't be afraid. this shaved head was just for a movie and my hair is growing back very slowly. >> today, lord, during holy week, the whole world is ravaged by a pandemic that is wreaking death and immobilizing us. the irs says the first wave of stimulus payments have now gone out to american taxpayers who qualify for them. >> hey, stay safe. we are in this for the duration, and we will get through this together.