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It didn\\u2019t have to be this way. 

The coronavirus pandemic didn\\u2019t have to become politicized\\u2014or racialized. But last March, President Donald Trump \\u201cdecided to call coronavirus, which has no ethnicity or zip code or nationality, the China virus,\\u201d says Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali on the 100th episode of The New Abnormal.

\\u201cThere was no reason to make coronavirus a racist thing,\\u201d co-host Molly Jong-Fast adds. 

Now, not only are people of Chinese descent coming under attack across the U.S., but other Asians\\u2014because \\u201cbigots aren\\u2019t nuanced,\\u201d adds Ali, who wrote about the wave of anti-Asian hate for the Beast before the Atlanta massage parlor murders.

\\u201cAs a Muslim, as a son of Pakistani immigrants, we\\u2019ve been through this for the past 20 years,\\u201d he tells Jong-Fast. \\u201cAnd I realized that that story in America is the original story that gets a remake, and sometimes the villain just gets changed, right? So right now it\\u2019s Chinese or the Chinese, whoever looks Chinese. It\\u2019s been Muslims. It\\u2019s always African-Americans, it\\u2019s Latinos. We\\u2019re all the invaders.\\u201d 

\\u201cIt\\u2019s a society-wide problem,\\u201d he says, \\u201cthat requires a society-wide solution.\\u201d

After Ali tells Jong-Fast why we\\u2019ve got to nuke the filibuster, she welcomes freshman Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) on the podcast to talk about the pandemic and how the vaccine campaign is going.

\\u201cThe United States is probably in the best position, except maybe for Israel, throughout the world, in terms of vaccinating its population,\\u201d Auchincloss says. 

Still, he cautions: \\u201cNot to be a Debbie Downer, but this problem of cold storage is very much still with us. If you look at countries near the Equator, we are nowhere near herd immunity. And indeed we\\u2019re looking at late 2022, early 2023 to hit that tipping point. And there the cold storage supply chain is very much an issue.\\u201d

The U.S. needs to develop a Marshall Plan for vaccines, he says, because \\u201cwe\\u2019re in a race right now between vaccinations and variants, and it doesn\\u2019t help the United States if we win it domestically and lose it internationally.\\u201d

Lastly, Jong-Fast brings on Evan McMullin, former 2016 presidential candidate and former CIA officer, to talk about how the GOP is changing.

The last five years, he says, were not an \\u201canomaly\\u201d for the party. \\u201cWe were headed towards that for decades,\\u201d he says. \\u201cAnd I don\\u2019t see us getting past the last five years immediately either. I think there is that opportunity, but you know, it, it will take time.\\u201d

McMullin says he\\u2019s still a registered Republican but is not sure how long he\\u2019ll stay that way, given the \\u201ccurrent direction\\u201d of the party.

If you haven\'t heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast\\u2019s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O\\u2019Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes its just Rick & Molly discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you\\u2019ll support The Beast\\u2019s fearless journalism. Plus! You\\u2019ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com

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