The anti-vaxxers of the past

Mary Chapin Carpenter - "The Age Of Miracles"

From the quite excellent What's Gotten Into You: The Story of Your Body's Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night's Dinner:

Scurvy was common on longer voyages... The Navy had dispatched a squadron of eight ships under the command of George Anson to attack Spanish galleons in the South America. Three and a half years later, Anson returned with a treasure so vast he needed three two wagons to haul it to the Tower of London. 

Only about 400 of his 1900 men returned with him. Most had died of scurvy.

... 

There was no agreement on how to cure it.... Yet this knowledge had once been known, at least by some, 200 years before. Many ship captains could have told you that scurvy breaks out on long voyages that deprived sales of fresh fruit and vegetables.... The Dutch East India company even established plantations in the cape of Good Hope and meritas to provide lemons for their cruise.

Over time, unfortunately, the knowledge of lemon juice is beneficial properties somehow vanished. The reasons for many, including simple complacency. When the incidents of scurvy grew worse, there was resistance to citrus. Lemon juice was expensive and somehow ship owners suspected that merchants touted the imaginary medicinal product powers of lemons just to drive up the price. 

At the same time, physicians were pedaling a confusing variety of many other supposed cures. As author David Harvie observes, there were even "anti-fruiters" who claimed that lemons hurt sailors on some expeditions.

In 1756... [after book that talks more about how lemons treat scurvy] the Seven Years War broke out between Britain and France. Of the 184,899 sailors who enlisted or were pressed into the Royal Navy, only1,512 were killed in action. Another 133,708 expired from disease - primarily scurvy.

Joe Rogan and these folk would have been right at home.