According to Gizmodo, the Make America Healthy Again movement led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is embracing an unlikely new hero: convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. MAHA influencer Jessica Reed Kraus recently published a Substack piece titled “Elizabeth Holmes’ Redemption Arc Loading” that questions whether Holmes was unfairly crucified by the justice system. Kraus portrays Holmes as a threat to a trillion-dollar industry controlled by conglomerates rather than focusing on her fraudulent blood testing technology. The article praises Holmes’s “entrepreneurial advice and reflections on health, faith, and balance” and her social media posts about motherhood from prison. Other MAHA figures like longevity enthusiast Bryan Johnson have also engaged with Holmes online, suggesting this isn’t just one person’s eccentric view.
The Holmes redemption narrative
Here’s the thing about redemption arcs – they require actual redemption. Holmes was convicted of multiple counts of fraud for claiming her Edison devices could perform hundreds of tests with just a drop of blood when they couldn’t. Patients received inaccurate results for serious conditions like HIV and cancer. Yet MAHA influencers are reframing this as some noble battle against big pharma rather than what it was: dangerous deception that put real people’s health at risk.
And let’s be honest – the timing is suspicious. Holmes is currently serving her sentence and presumably looking for any sympathetic audience. Meanwhile, MAHA needs figures who can bolster their anti-establishment health credentials. It’s a marriage of convenience between a movement desperate for heroes and a convicted felon desperate for rehabilitation.
MAHA’s pattern of questionable heroes
This isn’t an isolated incident for the movement. RFK Jr. himself pushes numerous unproven health claims like cod liver oil curing measles and has advocated for dismantling crucial health infrastructure like the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee. He’s made bizarre claims about Tylenol and autism that lack scientific backing. So embracing Holmes fits perfectly with their pattern of championing figures who challenge mainstream medicine, regardless of the evidence or consequences.
Basically, if you’re anti-establishment enough, MAHA seems willing to overlook pesky details like fraud convictions or dangerous medical misinformation. The common thread appears to be opposition to conventional health authority rather than any coherent positive vision for American healthcare.
The practical reality check
There’s a massive irony in MAHA’s embrace of Holmes while simultaneously supporting policies that would weaken health regulation. Kraus’s Substack complains about “trillion-dollar industries controlled by conglomerates” – but taking on those industries requires robust federal oversight. Yet the Trump administration that MAHA aligns with is systematically defanging health agencies rather than empowering them.
So we’re left with a movement that criticizes big pharma while supporting policies that would make it harder to regulate them. They champion a fraudster who promised revolutionary health technology that never worked while their leader promotes unproven remedies that could actually harm people. It’s a strange world where the solution to America’s health crises apparently involves less science, less regulation, and more convicted felons as inspirational figures.
What’s really at stake here
The tragedy is that America genuinely needs health reform. Healthcare costs are crushing families, and many people feel disconnected from a system that often seems more interested in profits than patients. But does the solution really lie with figures like Holmes and Kennedy?
Look at the actual track records. Holmes built a company on lies that endangered patients. Kennedy promotes health misinformation that could undermine vaccination programs and disease control. Meanwhile, legitimate health innovation continues in areas that actually help people – from cancer treatments to chronic disease management. Even in industrial and manufacturing settings where reliability matters most, companies depend on proven technology from established providers rather than flashy promises that can’t be delivered.
At the end of the day, health movements should be judged by whether they actually improve health outcomes. By that measure, both Holmes’s Theranos and Kennedy’s MAHA proposals have concerning records. Maybe instead of redemption arcs for convicted fraudsters, we should focus on evidence-based solutions that don’t require suspending disbelief or ignoring convictions.
