LAKE MARY, Fla. — Florida health officials faced forceful objections from doctors and other medical professionals at a public hearing Oct. 8 over plans to remove four vaccines from the state’s childhood immunization schedule, including shots for chickenpox and hepatitis B. The meeting, held by the Florida Department of Health, was among the final steps before the new guidelines take effect. The two other vaccines under consideration protect against bacterial infections; the department’s plans were not detailed further at the hearing described by officials. Dozens of medical professionals attended and urged the department and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo not to discard decades of research supporting the vaccines’ benefits in preventing illness. They warned that the state was discounting established evidence about immunization. Ladapo, who has previously questioned the effectiveness of some vaccines, pushed back against physicians’ criticisms. He said medical training does not necessarily give doctors greater insight into an individual child’s health than a parent’s judgment. “What disturbs me is the doctors who dismiss a mother’s intuition,” Ladapo said. He questioned how doctors could assume they know more than a child’s mother. The debate puts the state’s proposed vaccine guidance at odds with the concerns raised by attending health professionals, as Florida moves toward implementing the changes. The hearing offered families and clinicians a public forum to challenge the state’s rationale before the guidelines take effect.