Ahead of the G7 summit in June, President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson held separate bilateral meetings to discuss enhanced cooperation between the U.S. and the U.K., marking the first in-person engagement between the two leaders.
The resulting Atlantic Charter has effectively turbocharged the pathways for partnerships in commerce; defence and security; and most crucially, in science, health and pandemic preparedness. And the effects of these commitments and points of action won’t be limited to our national strategies: there’s much to gain locally for Atlanta, where institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have substantial skin in the game.
To state the obvious: the pandemic has upended the ways in which we think about public health, and just in Atlanta, several internationally recognised institutions have restarted conversations on spotting emerging threats and working collaboratively to find solutions.
The Charter continues these conversations and backs them with commitments for action. Principal to these objectives will be the U.K.’s new Centre for Pandemic Preparedness and the new U.S. National Center for Epidemic Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, both of which will work collaboratively to prevent future epidemics from taking hold. And multilaterally, both our countries have committed to strengthening the impact of the World Health Organization, and to contributing significant resources to the COVAX global vaccine initiative.
For Atlanta, there’s a significant role to play in all of the above. Most evident is the CDC, which will be central to the forecasting and planning elements of the cooperative, and from which much of Atlanta’s global health ecosystem flows. Building on the CDC’s expertise in surveillance and response, and the U.K.’s advanced genomic surveillance capability, the U.K. Health Security Agency and the CDC partnership will boost efforts to combat global pandemics and emerging health threats, like the silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance. It will spearhead the establishment of a global early warning system; an infectious disease surveillance network, which will both spot threats like emerging viruses and drug resistant pathogens in humans and animals before they spread; and enable the rapid development of vaccines and treatments once identified. Universities and non-profits will be key interlocutors as well, and Atlanta has many leading voices to contribute to the conversation.
The current pandemic has exposed harsh health inequities, and The Charter provisions us to address these in tandem, twinning the CDC’s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity with the U.K.’s NHS Race and Health Observatory. Atlanta organisations like the Global Health Crisis Coordination Centre and the Centre for Global Health Innovation are leading voices on vaccine distribution and equity in global health, and there is scope for significant contribution to the U.K.-U.S. strategy. Viewed together, the provisions of the Charter present a new opportunity for Atlanta to engage internationally, as the city continues to position itself as a headquarters for global public health.
Looking beyond the public health dimension, there’s much to celebrate in the Charter for Atlanta and the region. Our countries’ commitments to human rights, media freedom and democracy abroad speak directly to causes embedded in the city’s DNA. Major institutions like the Carter Center, the King Center and area universities will play a significant role in future international advocacy and monitoring. And the Charter has unlocked a new pathway for bilateral cooperation that will amplify voices on both sides of the Atlantic.
Under the Biden Administration, there is a renewed sense of urgency in tackling major issues affecting both countries, and the U.K. stands ready to work with our U.S. counterparts in countering some of the world’s most challenging threats.
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