About 200 children attended a COVID-19 vaccine clinic Wednesday at the West Resource Center.

The clinic, along with one in Lawrence, was one of the first of a series of opportunities this month for kids ages 5-11 to receive a Pfizer vaccine.

Dan Partridge, director at the Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Department, said health officials were worried at first about how kids would react to the shot, but they seemed to have warmed up to it. 

“We have a lot of kids that we have to kind of talk down and, you know, manage them, and so far, they’ve been real troopers,” Partridge said. “They’ve just kind of stepped up and gotten their shot.” 

There were cookies, a magician and a play area to distract the kids from the vaccine during the clinic. Kids could pick up a button, sticker and T-shirt after their shot, along with their official vaccine card.  

Parents, who came from around Douglas County, informed their kids about the importance of the shot. Lilly Fast, a Lawrence parent who works in the medical field, asked her kids how they felt when getting their flu shot and prepared them that way. 

Other parents kept their kids calm by waiting to tell them what was going on until right before. Amy Brown said she waited to tell her daughter until two hours earlier so she wouldn’t worry about it all day.

Brown said her motivation to have her daughter vaccinated was to keep grandparents and other community members safe. 

“I think it’s also good to model how to keep our community safe and taking care of each other,” Brown said. 

Many parents and students are hoping the pediatric vaccine is a step toward removing mask mandates. 

Brown said that is what her daughter was most optimistic about. 

“She said, ‘You know, maybe I don’t have to wear my mask as much. Do we get to maybe travel more? Can I be with other people more often?’ So I think that’s what’s really important to her,” Brown said. 

Jennifer Clair, a physician at Total Family Care, said the decision to vaccinate children against COVID-19 can be difficult for parents.

“Remember that you’re weighing the risk of getting a vaccine to the risk of illness, not to the risk of just not getting one,” she said in a news release. “The disease itself causes worse outcomes than the vaccine.”

The White House reported more than 900,000 kids across the country have received a first dose of vaccine in its first week available.

For more information on future local clinic dates and locations, follow this link and click on 5-11 vaccinations. After finding an access code for a particular clinic, enter it at ldchealth.org/getmyvaccine to register.

Vaccines are also available at primary care clinics except First Med and McLouth Medical Clinic, LMH Health said.

Reach reporter Anna Denison at [email protected]. 

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