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(World Health Organization 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 policies, community lockdowns, restrictions on large gatherings, and travel cancellations(Usher et al . 2020a). These strategies have, however,been found to have a number of negative impacts including an increase in the levels of mental health dis-tress in the community (Usher et al. 2020b), an increase in loneliness, and an increase in the rates of domestic and family violence (Usher et al . 2020c).

Since the global spread of the disease, there has been a race to develop and have approval for vaccines to protect the masses from this deadly infectious dis-ease. Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective public health interventions to manage infectious disease out-breaks. We have witnessed the rapid development and approval of vaccines to protect people from COVID-19(Nature 2020). The roll out of vaccination programs is currently occurring across the globe. However, it is expected that there will be some scarcity of vaccines early in the vaccination role out leading to questions about who should be prioritized for vaccination. A guiding principle to address this issue is as follows: (i)maximizing benefit and minimizing harm in the short and long term; (ii) equal concern for every person in priority settings and vaccine allocation and distribution; and, (iii) mitigation of health inequities to address the higher burden of COVID-19 in some disadvantaged groups (Mazereelet al . 2021, p. 1).