Editorial: Ensuring COVID-19 vaccine uptake by people with severe mental illness: a mental health nursing priority

In December 2019, the Chinese government announced the occurrence of a ‘pneumonia of unknown aetiology’ to the World Health Organization(WHO 2020). That pneumonia is now well known as COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus disease. Public health strategies enacted globally to fight the spread of the disease so far have relied on social distancing poli-cies, community lockdowns, restrictions on large gatherings, and travel cancellations (Usher, Bhullar, &Jackson 2020a). These strategies have however been found to have a number of negative impacts including an increase in the levels of mental health distress in the community (Usher, Durkin, & Bhullar 2020b), an increase in loneliness, and an increase in the rates of domestic and family violence (Usher, Bhullar, Durkin, Gyamfi, & Jackson 2020c).