1) As Russia masses more than 150,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders, it’s worth noting #COVID deaths are rising in both nations, with the #Omicron variant causing the latest viral fatalities. In this thread, I will assess the #pandemic's impact on a potential war and vice versa. 
2) First, though, let us review the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on World War I. “It might seem like a coincidence that a global pandemic of influenza happens at the same time as the First World War, but in fact they’re related,” says historian Christopher Capozzola.
3) “This is a time when you have tons of people living in close quarters together, particularly those serving in the military,” Capozzola recounts of that period. “You have shortages of food and good housing that mean that people are just not as healthy.” theworldwar.org/learn/pandemic…
4) “And you have millions of people moving back and forth across their own countries, across the Atlantic," Capozzola adds. "This is a perfect storm for the explosion of the flu into a global crisis.”
5) Writes scholar Carol Byerly: “The (flu) virus traveled with military personnel from camp to camp and across the Atlantic. At the height of the American military involvement…influenza and pneumonia sickened 20% to 40% of U.S. Army and Navy personnel.”
6) U.S. President Woodrow Wilson dispatched soldiers on ships knowing that many would die of the flu before even reaching Europe. India ended up being the hardest hit in the flu pandemic, which would kill at least twice as many people as the Great War itself.
7) Which brings us the escalation along the Ukraine border. As the Guardian newspaper reports: “The Omicron variant is causing record numbers of new COVID infections in Russia and Ukraine, threatening to impact military calculations over Russia’s continued troop buildup.”
8) As the chart below by Our World in Data shows, #COVID deaths are sadly resurgent in both Ukraine and Russia, with those in Ukraine apparently rising faster. However, both countries are likely declaring fewer #pandemic deaths now for obvious reasons.
9) At the same time, both Russia and Ukraine – preoccupied as they are with the looming threat of war – have lagged considerably in boosting their populations against #Omicron and its stealth variant BA.2, as the chart by Our World in Data reveals.
10) Will #pandemic history repeat itself along the Ukraine border? President Joe Biden has made clear U.S. troops would not enter the fight should Russia launch the biggest European land invasion since the Second World War.
11) But given opportunistic nature of the #coronavirus, it would no doubt proliferate even more in the event of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops, eventually moving beyond that region, perhaps prolonging the current #pandemic. End of thread.
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