"...many have done a world of good for humanity..."
That was my starting point, as I had been taught from birth. But then I saw this:
Amongst the diseases charted is scarlet fever, for which there is no, and has never been a, vaccine. Also, the early 'vaccination' for smallpox absolutely did not save any lives, and if you read the literature from that time this will be obvious. The reason for that is all they did to 'vaccinate' people was to take a sample of pus from infected animals and introduce that - with all and sundry infectious pathogens - into subjects. Unsurprisingly, this caused many illnesses and deaths, far from reducing impact of disease. What is apparent from the chart is that, while vaccines were introduced at various times, diseases all reduced in impact simultaneously, including smallpox and scarlet fever. If you look closely at the smallpox data, it shows that the worst outbreak occurred after the most stringent mandate was imposed. Smallpox vaccination made the disease much worse!
I learned I was wrong, and when an honest man learns he is wrong, he either ceases to be wrong or ceases to be honest. Because this information made me look into the literature, I changed my mind. Today I regret ever allowing any vaccinations to be imposed on my sons.
That is why I provide the data, the actual factual information, rather than claims of them with immense profit motives to fool us into believing, as we've been told, that vaccines of any kind or stripe, ever have done anyone any good. The studies comparing vaccinated to unvaccinated children all show that vaccinated children have ~2.5x higher all causes mortality. The data tells the truth. The profiteers and their minions do not. We cannot ascertain that without looking at the data, which requires reading the studies.
"...there's plenty of rigorously independent scientific studies..."
That show any benefit from vaccines? I haven't seen them, and I look. Please provide links to any such information that you are aware of. If I am wrong, I very much want to know it so that I can change my mind and become right. I am happy that you have looked at the studies I have linked. Whether you are in agreement with them or not, you at least haven't treated the data like a cultist warding off heretical dogma, as many do. This makes me happy for you, and glad you make decisions based on information you ascertain for yourself, rather than just doing as you're told. Whether we agree about this or that today is a minor thing, because honest people that look at the same information will at least make rational decisions based on their interpretation of that information, and will see the value in having the freedom to themselves make their own decisions based on their own investigation - which means they do not support censoring that information or mandatory medical interventions that would deprive them of their right to choose for themselves.
These are far more important than whether we agree about the impact of vaccines, because they are what differentiate sovereigns from chattel.
When I was a child I literally was taken to a measles party by my parents, so that I would catch measles at the appropriate age to suffer only a mild fever and a few days of relative misery. I also got the mumps and chicken pox, also relatively mild and no more than a few days discomfort, from which almost no children suffered more or died in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The hype about measles today is pure BS. I have not only seen the impact of measles, but personally lived it.
I am living proof of my claims.