How about if we all take a breath and consider the schoolchild vaccination controversy with a measure of generosity and goodwill?

No matter how strongly you feel that parents who oppose vaccinating their kids are misguided, the judgmental shaming, name-calling and snarky comments fired at them are doing nothing to budge them. Instead, the number of conscientious objectors in Texas is growing each school year.

In just the last few weeks, a new wave of outrage has swept through North Texas, with Plano taking the biggest hits.

First, the suburb was singled out as one of the 15 U.S. metro areas with the most conscientious exemptions for kindergartner vaccinations. The parents of more than 400 Plano students entering school for the first time selected the opt-out option.

No sooner had classes started than a case of measles was confirmed at Plano West Senior High School. While no details about the ailing individual were released, Collin County health officials said anyone who was at the school Aug. 14-16 may be at risk. Even those who have been vaccinated against measles were encouraged to watch for symptoms through next Thursday.

The easy response to this bad news is an eye-rolling, head-shaking “when will those fact-resistant folks learn?” After all, vaccination doesn’t fall into the category of things we can safely agree to disagree about.

But the truth is that those adults who don’t believe in vaccination — just like those who do — have the same end goal: They want to do what’s best for their kids.

Fearful and misinformed parents continue to fall back on discredited research that mistakenly linked vaccines to autism. But rather than responding to their concerns with a dog pile of ridicule, perhaps it would be more constructive to instead encourage them to consult carefully with trusted doctors.

Health care professionals are vital to clearing up misunderstandings and providing answers to parents’ many questions. And facts from a credible medical source are more important than ever, given the ever-evolving culprits of misinformation.

No surprise, social media is playing a big role in promoting anti-vax conspiracies and rumors. A just-published study in the American Journal of Public Health revealed that internet bots and Russian trolls have for years amplified inaccurate and discredited vaccination data.

A review of thousands of tweets sent between July 2014 and September 2017 found skewed vaccine info by the same Russian trolls who interfered in U.S. elections as well as by marketing and malware bots.

These “content polluters” — who distribute malware, unsolicited commercial content and disruptive materials — shared anti-vaccination messages 75 percent more than average Twitter users, according to Johns Hopkins University’s summary of the findings.

The Russian trolls and more sophisticated bot accounts posted both pro- and anti-vaccine tweets to promote discord, the study found. “By playing both sides, they erode public trust in vaccination, exposing us all to the risk of infectious diseases,” Hopkins researcher Mark Dredze wrote.

A health care worker prepares to administer an immunization at the Dallas Mayor's Back to School Fair held at the Centennial Building at Fair Park in Dallas on Aug. 3. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer)

At present, Texas parents can opt out of vaccinating their children with little more than a name, age and address. Philosophical-based objections, allowed under state law since 2003, have grown over the past five years and now top 1 percent of all schoolchildren.

Texas reported that 56,738 students — from kindergarten to 12th grade — opted out last school year. That’s almost 4,000 more unvaccinated students than the year before, according to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.

Those numbers tell me that the hysterical and sometimes hateful “zealots endanger school kids” arguments aren’t winning the day. So here’s my proposal:

State lawmakers are right now drawing up proposed laws for the next legislative session, which convenes in January. A small but powerful anti-vaxxer lobby won the battle in Austin 15 years ago. This time around, those of us who wholeheartedly support vaccination for all children need to persistently call on our representatives to end the waivers for nonmedical exemptions.

At the very least, we need a law that allows adults to know the exemption rates at their kids’ schools. Campus-level numbers would allow parents of children who are highly susceptible to diseases to choose safer school environments.

As we take up this legislative crusade, it’s worth being aware that, while the majority of Texas constituents favor vaccination, a consequential minority thinks otherwise.

The latest Texas Lyceum issue poll indicated that 3 in 4 Texans think the benefits of childhood vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella “outweigh the risks.” Of these same respondents, 78 percent said healthy children “should be required to be vaccinated in order to attend public schools because of the potential risk for others when children are not vaccinated.”

Who are the respondents who make up the 1 in 4? Democrats and Republicans, well-to-do parents and lower-income couples, suburban, small-town and big-city folks — a cross-section of Texans as certain of the righteousness of their anti-vax stand as the rest of us are in our ridicule of it.

I’m not suggesting that we give in on a public health issue that, if mishandled, could lead to a devastating outbreak of a previously-eradicated disease.

But the blame and shame game is not working. Let’s instead encourage immunization doubters to listen carefully to their doctors and focus our own energies on getting Austin to close the opt-out loopholes.