Now one year into the coronavirus pandemic, over 1 million vaccine doses are being administered every day, but the vast majority of Americans have still not been vaccinated and new viral strains are mutating.

Different levels of government should improve their coordination to have more consistent guidelines and communicate with medical companies developing new vaccines.

Because the Trump administration largely left distribution to the states’ discretion, different states have different sequences of population groups for vaccination, which has led to more confusion and a different set of problems for each state.

New virus strains that originated in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa are spreading in the United States. If these become more of a problem, vaccine manufacturers should specialize on different strains to avoid redundant research and wasted resources.

The lack of centralization has caused wasted resources and unnecessary challenges. Thankfully, clearer and more consistent guidelines from the government and more specialization between researchers can help to end the pandemic sooner.