Children overcome tensions and receive the first COVID vaccine in Baton Rouge for the youngest group | News

Most of Libya Walker’s face was hidden in a pink cloth mask with a white cat printed on it, but the five-year-old’s tension on the imminent shot was apparent.

When the needle stabbed her arm, she silently became one of the youngest children in the East Baton Rouge Parish and received her first Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot. However, the room inside the Hour Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital Pharmacy was filled with cheers from her sister, 9-year-old Jane Walker, and her mother, Mariwalker.

“I’m very happy that it finally happened,” Mari Walker said in a hurry to let her daughters choose a stuffed animal as a reward for their courage.

Jane and Libya received their first shot of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday morning, 18 years old, 5-11, shortly after federal and state regulators approved the vaccine for the youngest unvaccinated age group. He was one of the children.

According to experts, children need to be vaccinated not necessarily because they are at serious risk, but because they can carry the virus to those who carry it. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 997 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the East Baton Rouge Parish. According to the coroner’s office, the dead were children aged 2 and 14 with “serious comorbidity.”

The Walker family said the shot was about returning to normal after living with a pandemic for 20 months.

“That means I go to a restaurant and go to Knock Knock,” Jane said, referring to the Knock Knock Children’s Museum, which her family frequently visited before the pandemic.

Mari Walker, a content strategist at The Lake, who was vaccinated in April, is also planning a trip for her family to visit Oklahoma’s mother. They haven’t seen each other since before the pandemic.

“This vaccine means we can do those things, but it also means we can protect the rest of our community, and we do it. I’m really excited to do that, “said Mariwalker.

Pharmacist Claudia Brooks has been a constant source of information to hug and reassure children through an hour-long series of vaccine appointments.

Pharmacies plan to increase vaccination next week, and the Hour Lady of the Lake Clinic will also provide vaccines to newly qualified children. The 18 children vaccinated on Friday represented a soft launch the day after the pharmacy received the first 200 vaccinations, as Brooks said, “some children were nervous.” Was useful for.

However, many of the children who received the shot were able to make brave faces.

Dr. Michael Bolton, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the hospital, took his daughter, 8-year-old Georgia and 11-year-old Caroline, to get a donut and went to school after firing because “they were very brave.” rice field.

“It hurt more than I expected, but it didn’t really hurt,” Georgia said.

Caroline is most excited to have a night out with her friends again. Georgia is looking forward to her first oversleep, which her sister told her so much fun.

Both girls said they would “probably” show off their band-aid to their friends at school, which their dad encouraged.

“It’s a shared thing, it’s okay to get excited and try to get your friends vaccinated,” Bolton said.

Eleven-year-old Cooper Volland received the last shot of the morning. He also didn’t enjoy the shot, but told his mother a few weeks ago that he couldn’t wait to get the vaccine “because it’s safe.”

Volland shrugged when asked how he felt about the needle just before receiving the shot.

He raised his thumb when the needle stabbed his arm.

When asked what to do with the new vaccine card, Volland raised a paper square in the air.