| Good afternoon, Chicago. The Chicago-based American Medical Association is blasting a federal vaccine advisory committee’s decision today to no longer recommend that all babies get the hepatitis B vaccine when they’re born. The committee’s decision “is reckless and undermines decades of public confidence in a proven, lifesaving vaccine,” said Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, an American Medical Association trustee, in a statement Friday morning. “Today’s action is not based on scientific evidence, disregards data supporting the effectiveness of the
Hepatitis B vaccine, and creates confusion for parents about how best to protect their newborns.” Here’s what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit chicagotribune.com/latest-headlines and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices. Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History news Residents pick up their belongings following an overnight fire in the 1500 block of North
Karlov Avenue in Chicago’s West Humboldt Park on Dec. 5, 2025 which sent at least 10 people to the hospital. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) At least 10 people were taken to five area hospitals after a fire broke out Friday at an apartment building in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, officials reported. More top news stories: business Liquid steel is poured into a steel making unit at Granite City Works, in Granite City, Illinois, on June 28, 2018. (Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune) The company shut down the last blast furnace there in 2023, and it even moved to wind down its steel processing mill there in September. More top business stories: sports Chicago Bears players stand during the national anthem before playing the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on Jan. 5, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune) It’s not like the semiannual grudge match between the Bears and the Green Bay Packers needed higher stakes, but the football gods bestowed them anyway. More top sports stories: eat. watch. do. Composer Matthew Aucoin and soprano Julia Bullock embrace following the world premier of Aucoin’s “Song of the Reappeared” at Symphony Center in Chicago on Dec. 4, 2025. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) At the Chicago Symphony this week, poet Raúl Zurita’s verses become “Song of the Reappeared,” a 20-minute work for soprano and orchestra by Matt Aucoin. More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories: nation & world The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices votes to recommend changes to the infant hepatitis B vaccination policy during a meeting in Atlanta on Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Gray) A loud chorus of medical and public health leaders decried the actions of the panel, whose current members were all appointed by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a leading anti-vaccine activist before this year becoming the nation’s top health official. More top stories from around the world: |