For Media Inquiries
James F. Holderman III
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 3, 2022
Jefferson City, MO – A statewide health freedom effort in Missouri culminated Tuesday in a
200-person rally at the Capitol building in Jefferson City to oppose the confirmation of Don
Kauerauf as the state’s public health director. Senator Mike Moon called it an “overwhelming
outpouring” from Missourians alerting their lawmakers to the undisclosed ties Mr. Kauerauf
has with a national health data tracking and behavior-modification plan called SHIELD T3. By
exposing and opposing Kauerauf’s confirmation, Missourians made it clear they will not stand for
vaccine passports.
Senator Moon said, “Their voices were heard. … We acted on their will.”
Kauerauf spent his 30-plus year career in both emergency management and public
health in the state of Illinois where his wife, Judy Kauerauf, still works as Section Chief for
Communicable Disease at the Illinois Department of Public Health. Mrs. Kauerauf worked with
her alma mater, University of Illinois, to implement SHIELD Illinois, a COVID-19 testing,
surveillance, and data sharing program which was endorsed by the CDC and ultimately
named “Test to Stay.” The University of Illinois created a for-profit entity, SHIELD T3 (the T’s
stand for Target, Test, Tell), which has incorporated in almost 20 states and is setting up
mobile labs across the nation to deploy their suite of products in partnership with local
governments, including, with CDC’s endorsement, their “Test to Stay” program.
The University of Illinois pitched a plan called SHIELD U.S. to then-President-elect Joe
Biden’s COVID-19 Response Team in December 2020. Features of the SHIELD program
include frequent and repeated testing with the covidSHIELD rapid test, contact tracing within
three hours through an app, automatic data sharing with schools and public health
departments, interoperability with electronic health records like Epic’s MyChart, and data
monitoring by the SHIELD team to adapt strategies for discipline and incentives related to
public health behaviors. This is all the infrastructure needed for a vaccine or health passport,
and indeed the app collects a multitude of data. The covidSHIELD test is designed to have a
very low limit of detection to maximize finding positives. The app is “central” to the
program’s “Do to Do” model of incentives for behavior. Per the presentation to the White
House COVID-19 Response Team: “A ‘do-to-do’ expectation requires one to ‘do’ what is
expected in order to be able to ‘do’ what one intends.” The presentation is illustrated with the
picture of a “Building Access Denied” notification on a smart phone screen of someone
identified as “unsafe.”
Illinois’ most populous county, Cook County, which is home to over five SHIELD testing
centers, recently established a proof-of-vaccination requirement to access almost all indoor
spaces.
At the end of June 2021, Shield T3 incorporated in Missouri. In July 2021, Missouri Governor
Mike Parson appointed Mr. Kauerauf as Acting Director of the Missouri Department of Health
and Senior Services, effective September 1, 2021. It is unclear what previous connections Mr.
Kauerauf had to Missouri that brought him to be recruited as a public servant in the state
while he was serving as Chair of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force in Illinois.
Upon taking office in September 2021, Mr. Kauerauf said Missouri needs a “Test to Stay”
program and more people vaccinated. In November, he called the vaccination rate in
Missouri “atrocious.”
At the confirmation hearing before the Missouri Senate’s Gubernatorial Appointments
Committee on Tuesday, Senator Mike Moon questioned the extent to which Mr. Kauerauf’s
expansion of a “Test to Stay” plan in Missouri schools is modeled after the SHIELD plan in
Illinois, which his wife Judy is spearheading. Mr. Kauerauf appeared evasive and shockingly
uninformed as to his wife’s extensive efforts to push SHIELD in Illinois’ K-12 schools,
including the fact that she and SHIELD Illinois worked directly with the CDC to create and
pilot the “Test to Stay” regimen for nationwide expansion.
Missouri senators had difficulty getting clear answers from Mr. Kauerauf as to Missouri’s
plans to expand “Test to Stay” in the state’s public schools. The state recently began making
saliva-based PCR testing for COVID-19 available to school districts. The saliva-based test,
covidSHIELD, is at the heart of the SHIELD T3 plan. The test is SHIELD T3’s flagship product,
which Mr. Kauerauf acknowledged only very limited awareness of during the confirmation
hearing.
Don Kauerauf’s connections to Illinois, to SHIELD, his evasive answers, and prior statements
on record that “[t]he goal of public health vaccination programs is to achieve 100 percent
coverage” stiffened the resolve of many Missouri senators to not confirm him as Director of
Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services. Mr. Kauerauf resigned shortly
thereafter. Due to provisions in the Missouri Constitution, he is forever barred from again
holding that position in Missouri.
Many questions remain regarding SHIELD T3’s expansion into Missouri and nationwide at the
same time that the CDC is recommending “Test to Stay” programs in schools all across the
country. But, Tuesday’s failed confirmation shows health freedom and privacy is center-stage
in American politics and the movement is sweeping the nation during this critical election
year.
Stand for Health Freedom’s partner organization in Illinois, Protect Parents’ Rights, led by
James F. Holderman III, and Stand for Health Freedom’s State Director in Illinois, Christina L.
Giunta, uncovered the SHIELD plan and Judy Kauerauf’s role in pushing SHIELD into Illinois’
K-12 schools through extensive investigations and FOIA requests.
About Stand for Health Freedom:
Stand for Health Freedom (SHF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting basic human rights, constitutional rights and parental rights. Our digital advocacy center, launched in August 2019, lets conscientious Americans take a stand on issues that matter by giving them direct contact to their elected officials and others in positions of influence. SHF has an estimated reach of one million advocates who are pro-informed consent, pro-democracy, pro-debate, pro-information exchange, pro-First Amendment, pro-science, pro-parental rights, pro-bodily sovereignty, and pro-conscientious decision making. Together, we’re committed to reaching the people and making it undeniable to citizens and lawmakers that America still stands for health freedom. For more information about Stand for Health Freedom, visit www.standforhealthfreedom.com and click on Take Action or Petitions to learn about steps you can take to make your voice heard! For media inquiries about this article please email James F. Holderman III. For general media inquiries please email [email protected].
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Tell your governor to stop all covid restrictions in our kids’ schools. Masking, social distancing, isolation, quarantines, and mandatory vaccinations have taken a toll on our children’s mental and physical health. Evidence is growing every day that these policies do more harm than good. Click below to send the message!