Personally I think there are cultures of distrust built up by the government as an authority they have to overcome.

The methods of testing and developing these vaccines are radically different than previous vaccines. And the qualifiers of who was “at risk” and would need them were basically wide open from a government messaging standpoint.

So people naturally looked at it with skepticism. It then became a political battle. And medical officials did not do themselves any favors by making certain assertions using the same authority that turned out not to be true.

For example the initial reports of the origin of the virus being from a infectious disease lab in Wuhan, China were vehemently denied and shot down. Even those with a history of more liberal stances like John Stewart were shouted down and lampooned. The reality was they had no authority or information to based their denial of those assertions and low and behold it blew up in their face. Or the claim that even having covid previously was not enough and boosters were more effective than the real antibodies (which has never really been historically true for viruses and turns out wasn’t true for covid either. ) And socially excommunicating anyone that expressed doubt only made those with doubt see that as an affirmation. That it wasn’t based on logic or reason, just emotion.

And here’s the thing. Even if their messaging was altruistic there have been vaccines in the past that made clearance and then were recalled after testing because of side effects not found in testing. So there’s a history there. And the companies creating these vaccines have a history of covering up bad effects if it hits their bottoms line, such as the J&J aspirin or the talcum powder/baby power recalls. And that’s not to mention the history of testing on underserved communities that weren’t fully disclosed (ie:tuskeegee).

So yeha, it would make sense that there’s some new virus we have never seen and suddenly some miracle cure comes out within weeks, and there’s a huge media blitz for everyone, even those in good health witb relatively little risk factors, HAVE to get it. There was no nuance and again, while the push may have been altruistic the history shows there little that will help when the side effects emerge. And “just trust us we’re scientists” isnt enough.

Look at what happened with 9/11 cleanup crews. They have huge rates of cancer and such for cleaning those buildings up and now none of them can get treatment or even recognized that it’s a cause. Another thing Mr. Stewart goes nuts on.

So the doubt of the claims, to me, was and still is justified.