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KANSAS CITY, Mo — The Kansas City metro’s largest COVID-19 mass vaccination site is set up and ready to go. Eight-thousand people are expected to flow through Lot L at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium over this two-day event.

Everyone entering through Gate 3 off of Blue Ridge Cutoff will be met by members of the Missouri National Guard and guided through the process. People who don’t have an appointment will get another response.

“They will get to Gate 3 there, and they’ll be told to continue on down the road,” Col. Russell Kohl said. “Worst-case scenario for them is they will get into the line, and they will probably spend the next hour sitting in a line with nothing to show for it at the end of it.”

To ensure the event is not just limited to those who have cars and can get to Arrowhead, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority is also bussing people in.

There will be 20 people per bus with busses leaving each half hour starting at 8 a.m. Proof of appointment will be required to board. Shuttles will leave from the following locations:

  • Linwood YMCA, 3800 Linwood Blvd.
  • Macedonia Baptist Church, 1700 Linwood Blvd.
  • Black Archives of Mid America, 1722 E. 17th Terrace
  • Guadalupe Center (Pre-K facility), 5123 E. Truman Road
  • Cleaver Family YMCA, 7000 Troost Ave.
  • St. James United Methodist Church, 5540 Wayne Ave. (bus stop on Paseo)
  • Brush Creek Community Center, 3801 Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd.
  • Southeast Community Center, 4201 East 63 St.

Those with an appointment at Arrowhead will be met in the vaccination area by someone from Truman Medical Centers and University Health for their Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.

“People are working overtime, putting in long hours, but they just willingly do it,” said Dr. Mark Steele, executive clinical officer at Truman. “This is really important to them and to us.”

Volunteers from the UMKC Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy will also help at the mega vaccination site.

A fulltime medical director will be on-site, and anyone who is feeling ill after the shot will be evaluated.

‘The most common reaction that we have seen at these events are largely anxiety and a reaction to simply getting a shot,” Kohl said.

“There were some allergic reactions with the J&J vaccine,” Steele added, “but we don’t expect anything dramatic with it.”

Ambulances from the Kansas City Fire Department will be onsite on the off chance something serious does happen.

“If we think they are having a severe allergic reaction, then obviously the treatment is epinephrine initially, and then they may need to be transported to the emergency department,” Steele said.

It’s been a major undertaking to coordinate Kansas City’s largest mass vaccination event — with more to come.

“I think this is all just been energizing for all of us ever since the vaccine has become available, and so every additional person we can get vaccinated, the closer we can get to herd immunity and closer that we can get back to sort of normal life,” Steele said.

All of the appointments for the Arrowhead mass vaccination clinic are already full. If there are no-shows, the Jackson County Health Department will contact people from their list to fill the slots.