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It's a difficult problem to sum up because there are so many reasons this is happening, and I don't think it's all malicious.
At the core there is a general disrespect for any authority in American culture and it's easy to believe stories that a government-mandated medical intervention is somehow not as safe as they say.
It doesn't help that there have been government programs in the past that were harmful and the knowledge was only made public after it was too late. Very few people believe the government has the people's best interest in mind.
Individuals are only capable of understanding a very limited amount at one time, and rely on their tribe to inform them of almost everything else. These days there's a tsunami of information that is impossible to process completely. So it's just human nature to trust a small selection of sources and does usually offer a survival advantage.
So it's not hard to see how smart people can fall for misinformation especially when they are inclined to doubt authority.