Earlier this week, President Trump signed an executive order making recommendations about the childhood vaccine schedule.

The order advocate separating the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, known as the MMR vaccine, into three different single disease shots and giving all childhood immunizations at separate appointments when possible.

But a doctor we spoke to with at Norton Children's Hospital says the order is unlikely to have much of an impact on childhood vaccinations.

Let's talk about the vaccine schedule recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

That is what pediatricians in Jefferson County follow.

That is what pediatricians across the state follow.

And in fact, across the US, this is the schedule that has been endorsed by a variety of professional and medical societies.

This schedule is based on decades of scientific research and thousands of studies.

It's based on, when children in the US are most likely to be exposed to certain infectious diseases when they're most vulnerable, and when their immune systems are the most, able to respond.

And so if we just focus for a minute on the measles, mumps, rubella, vaccine, this is a combination vaccine that has been thoroughly studied, and there is no advantage to separating this vaccine into three separate vaccines.

There are only disadvantages.

Children will need to get more shots.

Parents will need to take off work, and take their child in for more visits.

We don't have any evidence that this is safer or it works better.

In fact, individual vaccines aren't available in the United States for measles, mumps and rubella.

But we do have, an MMR vaccine that works really well.

I think the other thing, maybe to mention is that, vaccines protect individual children, right.

And, and and that's important.

We all want our children to be healthy.

But the vaccine schedule that we currently have from the AAP also is important for the development of community immunity.

And so when kids are immunized, when all kids are immunized according to this recommended schedule, then it makes it hard for diseases to circulate in the community.

We are really, seeing, more measles cases than we have seen in, in three decades.

So far this year, you know, we're just barely halfway through 2026, and we've had more measles cases than in any other year since 1991.

And I think we have to say that, falling immunization rates contribute to that.

93% of the measles cases have been in people who are unimmunized or under immunized.

And so I think when we talk about, needing a different measles vaccine schedule, that may just contribute to hesitancy or confusion about measles vaccination.

So any parent that has questions about the vaccine schedule should just touch base with their pediatrician.

And if parents have questions, pediatricians have answers.

They can talk to them about the vaccine schedule and why certain vaccines are recommended and when they're recommended.

Doctor Bryant says parents also need to be aware that the vaccine requirements to attend public school in Kentucky have not changed, with the president's executive order.

The MMR vaccination is among the required immunizations.

Kentucky kids are heading back to school for about a thousand students in southern Kentucky.

Their new school is unlike any other.

Since I was eight years old.

I've had this dream of being an Air Force fighter pilot.

But when I discovered that there would be that aviation pathway, it really sealed the deal and made me want to come here.

Okay.

The doors are officially open at Warren County Public Schools.

New impact center for Leadership and Innovation.

How it will prepare students for careers in aviation, nursing, engineering and more.

Tomorrow on Kentucky edition, we have the.