rickets in the Deep South in the 1920s
I meant pellagra, vitamin B3 deficiency. Rickets is vitamin D deficiency.
The cause of pellagra was determined by epidemiologist Goldberger and published in 1915. This ignited anti-science, anti-public health opposition, because most of the victims of the disease were poor black children, and the white establishment was deeply opposed to any steps to improve their lives or health. The white establishment defended the diet as "traditional." It was traditional, but it was also deadly. Defending it was a lot like defending your right to drive under the influence of alcohol (which many people in the south defend to this day), or our "right" to go around in public without a mask, thereby killing hundreds of thousands of people unnecessarily.