The Kentucky General Assembly has adopted a bill to allow pharmacists to administer vaccines to children five and older.

Rural lawmakers say not every child has a pediatrician nearby, but a pharmacist might be much closer.

House Bill 274 passed unanimously on the House floor, but heard some opposition in the Senate today.

A few Republicans suggest vaccines can cause more harm than good.

A disappointing stat for some to hear.

But what if one kid gets affected because they had some allergy to an ingredient or they had some pre-condition they weren't aware of, but the doctor might have been aware of, their pediatrician might have been aware of, but that pharmacists might not have been aware of.

That's very easy to say.

Just get in your car and drive a few miles up the road.

If you think that way, then you don't really understand rural Kentucky.

You want to challenge it is to drive even five miles up the road.

If you're voting against this based on principle, you're cheating the children of Kentucky, particularly rural Kentucky.

And I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I am in that.

During the lockdowns and school closures of the COVID 19 pandemic, more children missed out on their routine vaccinations in Kentucky and across the globe.

Measles, mumps and rubella.

Vaccination rates among Kentucky's kindergartners did increase last school year, the first time since the pandemic.