A weekend gathering in Texas drew activists, homeopaths, doctors, lawyers, parents and a Republican senator who asked, “Why isn’t Tony Fauci in prison?”

 A weekend gathering in Texas drew activists, homeopaths, doctors, lawyers, parents and a Republican senator who asked, “Why isn’t Tony Fauci in prison?”

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likes to say that he is not anti-vaccine, he is “pro-safety.” But when 1,000 of his supporters gathered in Austin, Texas, last weekend for a celebratory conference to chart the future of their movement, they embraced a term — “anti-vax” — some once regarded as a slur.

“God is an anti-vaxxer, and he needs you to speak up,” declared Del Bigtree, a close ally of Mr. Kennedy who served as his communications director during his presidential campaign. Mr. Bigtree spoke during a session that looked back on his 2016 documentary asserting that there was a cover-up of a link between vaccines and autism.

”I’ve come to this anti-vax conference with a message that we need to be more boldly anti-vax,” said Mark Gorton, the president of the MAHA Institute, a group that works to advance Mr. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Mr. Gorton assailed the website of Mr. Kennedy’s former nonprofit as “some pretty weak anti-vaxxery.”

The conference, hosted by Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit Mr. Kennedy founded and led until he ran for president in 2023, was titled “Moment of Truth.” For the activists, homeopaths, physicians, lawyers and vaccine-wary parents who attended, it amounted to what Rebecca Hardy, co-founder of the advocacy group Texans for Vaccine Choice, called “a family reunion.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts vaccination at the top of its list of the “10 great public health achievements” of the 20th century. Vaccines wiped out smallpox and virtually eliminated polio. PhRma, the drug industry trade group, says vaccination programs are “smart investments” that save lives and drive down health care costs.

Mr. Kennedy, the nation’s most prominent vaccine critic, did not attend, but his presence was everywhere. In the conference exhibit hall, MAHA hoodies were on sale for $60 and glass ornaments featuring the health secretary’s likeness were priced at $15. Now that he holds clout in Washington, his backers are reveling in their newfound power.