The Trump administration’s effort to impose new requirements on Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine — the nation’s only traditional protein-based option for the coronavirus — is sowing uncertainty about updates to other vaccines, too.

Novavax said Monday that the Food and Drug Administration was asking the company to run a new clinical trial of its vaccine after the agency grants full approval. The company said it had responded and that it believed its shot remains “approvable.”

But a weekend post on social media by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary suggested the prospect of needing a new trial before the shots’ yearly strain update — something unlikely to be possible before fall. That’s raised questions about whether other vaccines will be caught in the turmoil.

“I don’t think because there’s a strain change that this is a new product,” said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former FDA vaccine chief. If that’s the new policy, “you’d always be doing clinical trials and you’d never have a vaccine that was up to date.”

The unusual move at FDA come shortly after the agency’s longtime vaccine chief was forced out over disagreements with Makary’s boss, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy won Senate confirmation to his job, in part, by promising not to change the nation’s vaccine schedule. Since taking office, he’s promised to “investigate” children’s shots, canceled meetings of expert vaccine advisers and directed officials to look again for connections between vaccines and autism, a link long-ago debunked.

Suit challenges immigration policy

A lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s policy of allowing immigration enforcement agents to act in spaces like schools and houses of worship was filed in Oregon on Monday, seeking to settle a legal debate over whether those areas should be off-limits.

The suit, brought by Justice Action Center and Innovation Law Lab, follows efforts by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to step up deportations, which have fallen short of President Donald Trump’s goals.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to restore a policy set during the Biden administration that generally prohibits immigration agents from carrying out operations that disrupt civic spaces, particularly ones where adults and children congregate together. The suit also asks the court to nullify a memo from Trump’s first week in office overturning that policy, arguing that it violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of assembly.

The case brings together a diverse coalition of labor organizations, interfaith groups and parishes, with member organizations and constituents in all 50 states.

Judge skeptical of law firm actions

Another federal judge in Washington has expressed skepticism on the legality of President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting a prominent law firm, saying he was concerned that the clear purpose of the edict was punishment.

U.S. District Judge John Bates had already temporarily halted the Trump administration’s executive order against the firm of Jenner & Block but heard arguments Monday on a request by the firm to block it permanently. Lawyers for two other firms — Perkins Coie and WilmerHale — made similar arguments last week to judges who appeared receptive to their positions.

Like the other judges, Bates did not immediately rule but repeatedly pushed back against a Justice Department’s claims that the orders against Jenner and other law firms were not meant to punish them. The executive orders have generally imposed the same sanctions against the law firms, including ordering that security clearances of attorneys be suspended, that federal contracts be terminated and that lawyers be barred from accessing federal buildings.

“It’s trying to punish Jenner by stopping the flow of money to Jenner,” Bates said. He later asked: “Isn’t it logical that clients are going to be reluctant to engage Jenner & Block if they know there’s a real chance that Jenner and Block isn’t going to be able to go into a federal building or talk to federal agencies?”

Trump won’t say ‘Goodbye’ to Columbus

President Donald Trump declared Sunday that he would bring “Columbus Day back from the ashes” and reinstate its celebration as a holiday.

“I am hereby reinstating Columbus Day under the same rules, dates, and locations, as it has had for all of the many decades before!” the president said in a post on Truth Social, referring to the federal holiday named for Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer who sailed to the Americas on behalf of Spain more than 500 years ago.

The holiday has long been criticized by those who condemn the explorer for paving the way for European colonialism, which brought catastrophic diseases and led to the decimation of Indigenous populations in America.

But Columbus Day was never canceled as a federal holiday, and the second Monday in October is still widely referred to as such in the United States, and for many, it remains an important part of Italian American heritage.

Trump cites Penn over transgender issues

The Trump administration said Monday that the University of Pennsylvania violated laws guaranteeing women equal opportunities in athletics by letting a transgender swimmer compete on the school’s women’s team and into team facilities.

The administration’s statement does not name Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022 and was the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title that year — an award Thomas now faces losing.

But the investigation opened in February by the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights focused on Thomas, who became a leading symbol of transgender athletes and a prominent political target of Republicans and President Donald Trump.

The department said Penn violated a law barring sex discrimination in schools and colleges, called Title IX, by “denying women equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”

Penn had no immediate comment Monday, but Penn has said in the past that it always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on athletic teams, both when Thomas swam and currently.

The department said Penn has 10 days to voluntarily resolve the violations or risk prosecution.

— From news services