Smallpox was actually deadly though. If Covid had the death rate of Smallpox then everyone would have gotten a vaccine. That's the end of the discussion. If your neighbor is bleeding from their eyes (Ebola) then people will take the vaccine. The reason Covid is different is because most people have to be reminded every day that it even exists, take a test every-time they sniffle to get diagnosed. So you can imagine vaccine uptick is just going to be less. It's a fact of life. The connection just isn't there.
Smallpox is like - at minimum - 30x more deadly - probably up to 70x more deadly - kills fully half of infected children under age 1 - and renders blind around 1% of those infected.