NEW YORK (AP) — A top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official told staff this week to start planning for the agency's splintering.
Several parts of CDC — mostly those devoted to health threats that aren't infectious — are being spun off into the soon-to-be-created Administration for a Healthy America, the agency official told senior leaders in calls and meetings.
The directive came from Dr. Debra Houry, the agency’s chief medical officer, according to three CDC officials who were in attendance. They declined to be identified because they weren't authorized to talk about the plans and fear being fired if they were identified.
Asked to comment, Houry referred The Associated Press to CDC media relations representatives. CDC spokesperson Jason McDonald acknowledged the agency is planning for possible changes but that "none of the items discussed at the meeting have been finalized, and are subject to change.”
Dr. Scott Harris, president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said there are “a lot more questions than there are answers right now.”
Those questions include whether the split will interrupt funding and assistance to state health departments that ultimately implement federal health policy, said Harris, who also is Alabama's state health officer.
“We'd love to be able to give input,” he said.
The Atlanta-based CDC is charged with protecting Americans from preventable health threats. It had roughly 13,000 employees at the beginning of the year, the bulk of them in Georgia.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has embarked on a dramatic downsizing of many federal agencies. The CDC's headcount was slashed by rounds of early retirements and layoffs that reduced staffing by 3,500 to 4,000 employees.
The layoffs targeted not just job classifications but offices and programs. For example, everyone at the CDC’s division on dental health was axed, as were most workers at an office that investigates occupational diseases and promotes job safety.
Now, federal health officials are deciding how to reassemble what's left. They have a Monday deadline to submit a reorganization plan to the White House.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already outlined plans for the new Administration for a Healthy America, which would largely focus on health problems not caused by infections.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said in a statement last month.
Kennedy has said the AHA will contain — among other things — the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the U.S. Surgeon General.
In the meetings this week, Houry said the new AHA agency also will likely absorb what’s left of the CDC centers devoted to birth defects, chronic conditions, environmental health, injuries, and workplace safety.
It's not clear if those staffers would stay in Atlanta — and that “deeply matters,” said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University health policy researcher who studies government health agencies.
If those jobs are moved to the Washington, D.C., area, "you certainly are going to lose lots of the kinds of experts who have built lives and careers and families in and around Atlanta, many of whom I'm sure would be unable or unwilling to relocate their lives," he said.
That would likely mean “you are building something anew, rather than just changing reporting lines,” he said.
The parts of CDC not being moved into the AHA would be be mainly focused on infectious diseases, with one notable exception: HIV.
The CDC's HIV prevention staff was decimated in the layoffs, with 160 people eliminated. What's left — the agency's HIV surveillance and lab operations, for example — would shift to the AHA under the realignment plan.
Such a change would place that CDC work under the same organizational umbrella as HRSA's Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. That program provides outpatient care, treatment and support services to people with HIV but no health insurance.
A cleaving of the CDC was proposed in Project 2025, the sweeping Heritage Foundation government-shrinking proposal that surfaced last year. That document called the CDC “the most incompetent and arrogant agency in the federal government” and proposed splitting it into two smaller agencies — one focused on disease data collection and the other more generally on public health.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE - A sign stands at an entrance to the main campus of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy, File)
FILE - People gather for a candlelight vigil in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in front of its headquarters in Atlanta, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Gray, File)
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Buffalo Bills fans arrived early and lingered long after the game ended to bid what could be farewell to their long-time home stadium filled with 53 years of memories — and often piles of snow.
After singing along together to The Killers' “Mr. Brightside” in the closing minutes of a 35-8 victory against the New York Jets, most everyone in the crowd of 70,944 remained in their seats to bask in the glow of fireworks as Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World” played over the stadium speakers.
Several players stopped in the end zone to watch a retrospective video, with the Buffalo-based Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” as the soundtrack while fans recorded selfie videos of the celebratory scene. Offensive lineman Alec Anderson even jumped into the crowd to pose for pictures before leaving the field.
With the Bills (12-5), the AFC's 6th seed, opening the playoffs at Jacksonville in the wild-card round next week, there's but a slim chance they'll play at their old home again. Next season, Buffalo is set to move into its new $1.2 billion facility being built across the street.
The farewell game evoked “a lifetime of memories,” said Therese Forton-Barnes, selected the team’s Fan of the Year, before the Bills kicked of their regular-season finale. “In our culture that we know and love, we can bond together from that experience. Our love for this team, our love for this city, have branched from those roots.”
Forton-Barnes, a past president of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, attended Bills games as a child at the old War Memorial Stadium in downtown Buffalo, colloquially known as “The Rockpile.” She has been a season ticket holder since Jim Kelly joined the Bills in 1986 at what was then Rich Stadium, later renamed for the team’s founding owner Ralph Wilson, and then corporate sponsors New Era and Highmark.
“I’ve been to over 350 games,” she said. “Today we’re here to cherish and celebrate the past, present and future. We have so many memories that you can’t erase at Rich Stadium, The Ralph, and now Highmark. Forever we will hold these memories when we move across the street.”
There was a celebratory mood to the day, with fans arriving early. Cars lined Abbott Road some 90 minutes before the stadium lots opened for a game the Bills rested most of their starters, with a brisk wind blowing in off of nearby Lake Erie and with temperatures dipping into the low 20s.
And most were in their seats when Bills owner Terry Pegula thanked fans and stadium workers in a pregame address.
With Buffalo leading 21-0 at halftime, many fans stayed in their seats as Kelly and fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Reed addressed them from the field, and the team played a video message from 100-year-old Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy.
“The fans have been unbelievable,” said Jack Hofstetter, a ticket-taker since the stadium opened in 1973 who was presented with Super Bowl tickets before Sunday’s game by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. “I was a kid making 8 bucks a game back in those days. I got to see all the sports, ushering in the stadium and taking tickets later on. All the memories, it’s been fantastic.”
Bud Light commemorated the stadium finale and Bills fan culture with the release of a special-edition beer brewed with melted snow shoveled out of the stadium earlier this season.
In what has become a winter tradition at the stadium, fans were hired to clear the stands after a lake-effect storm dropped more than a foot of snow on the region this week.
The few remaining shovelers were still present clearing the pathways and end zone stands of snow some five hours before kickoff. The new stadium won’t require as many shovelers, with the field heated and with more than two-thirds of the 60,000-plus seats covered by a curved roof overhang.
Fears of fans rushing the field were abated with large contingent of security personnel and backed by New York State troopers began lining the field during the final 2-minute warning.
Fans stayed in the stands, singing along to the music, with many lingering to take one last glimpse inside the stadium where the scoreboard broadcast one last message:
“Thank You, Bills Mafia.”
AP Sports Writer John Wawrow contributed.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Fans watch a ceremony after the Buffalo Bills beat the New York Jets in the Bills' final regular-season NFL football home game in Highmark Stadium Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre'Davious White (27) remains on the field to watch a tribute video after the Bills beat the New York Jets in the Bills' final regular-season NFL football home game in Highmark Stadium Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y.(AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Fans watch a ceremony after the Buffalo Bills beat the New York Jets in the Bills' final regular-season NFL football home game in Highmark Stadium Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Fans celebrate after the Buffalo Bills scored a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the New York Jets, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Fans celebrate and throw snow in the stands after an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Aga Deters, right, and her husband Fred Deters, walk near Highmark Stadium before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Michael Wygant shoves snow from a tunnel before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets at Highmark Stadium, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Alec Anderson (70) spikes the ball after running back Ty Johnson scored a touchdown against the New York Jets in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - The existing Highmark Stadium, foreground, frames the construction on the new Highmark Stadium, upper right, which is scheduled to open with the 2026 season, shown before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots, Oct. 5, 2025, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
Salt crew member Jim Earl sprinkles salt in the upper deck before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets at Highmark Stadium, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
