Very good points tilder and toys. Completely agree.
exit not knowing things doesn't mean they're bad. In fact, the point about science learning and evolving should, according to your logic, lead you to reject any medicine, including paracetamol. There are some studies beginning to show a link between asthma/allergies and paracetamol use.
In which case, it is therefore conceivable that the benefits of vaccination are even greater since by reducing the exposure to illness (eg measles), the potential use of paracetamol is reduced, on average. So learning more has shown that vaccination is even more beneficial to child health.
In fact, the more research which is done, the more confident I am in the safety of the current recommended childhood vaccinations. For example, concerns were raised about the MMR and autism based on a pretty flimsy theoretical link and not on any observed evidence. So a number of large studies were carried out to see if there was anyhting to the idea. None of them found any link. Of course, it's still theoretically possible that there is a link but the numbers of children affected would be tiny if there were since the studies were so large. So here's an example of learning more showing that vaccination is safe and (hopefully) increasing confidence.
Personally, I would make vaccination compulsory for school attendance if no medical exemption is provided. Those with genuine medical reasons could obtain exemptions and, in fact, their children would be the ones who would stand to gain the most. Of course people sholdn't be forced to vaccinate but if you wish to partake of a social good then you should be willing to accept that by you not vaccinating you are, de facto, increasing the risk to others who are equally entitled to an education. Those for whom there are concerns over vaccinating would be able to be exempted and those, like the ones the OP described, would not be allowed to willy nilly expose others to risk.
The only thing, OP, is that YABVU to just refer to mums. It's dads as well!