I think some people struggle with understanding reality when so much is on TV or in the media but they haven’t seen it. I had a strange episode in my teens where I didn’t believe football - thought it was all one big set up. Very strange, couldn’t get it out of my head.
I think a lot of people - particularly in the America’s who were hit last - saw the news being bombarded and of course having not lived through a pandemic before, struggled to believe it was real as they weren’t seeing it, and then they were hit harder.
In terms of vaccines, if you get into the wrong social groups with the scare mongering WhatsApp groups, no wonder you are a sceptic. I sometimes have a click on the profiles of people who post and share scaremongering, and it’s often across a range of issues as opposed to just one. So they’re just hard wired to be a cynic on all topics and issues. They don’t have the brainpower to weigh up the arguments and facts, put them together to understand the reality.
Effectively we now get to survival of the smartest.