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Rebekah Jones gains whistleblower status

by on31 May 2021


Data science to called out Florida's governor’s lies will get some protection

Last year Florida's governor Ronald Dion DeSantis attempted to lie to the state by assuring them that there was no evidence of COVID-19 in Florida, even when he knew that the state was one of the first infected.

To get around the small matter of “information” and “facts” Florida's Department of Health told its data manager Rebekah Jones to hide that data from public view.

Emails from within the agency reviewed by the Miami Herald and others show eventually Jones manager was fired, mostly because she felt lying was not cricket.

Florida’s government responded by raiding her house with armed cops in an attempt to get her to shut up.

Now it seems that things have moved against Florida’s governor and Jones has been officially made a whistleblower under Florida law by the Office of the Inspector General.

The Inspector-General now says the data manager has indeed shown "reasonable cause to suspect that an employee or agent of an agency or independent contractor has violated a federal, state or local law, rule or regulation". The move "will grant her certain protections".

Jones built the COVID-19 data dashboard for the Florida Department of Health, was fired last year after raising concerns about "misleading data" being presented to the public, according to the complaint, which was reviewed by the Miami Herald.

In the complaint, filed July 17, 2020, Jones alleged she was fired for "opposition and resistance to instructions to falsify data in a government website." She described being asked to bend data analysis to fit pre-determined policy and delete data from public view after questions from the press — actions she claimed, "represent an immediate injury to the public health, safety, and welfare, including the possibility of death to members of the public".

Now an ongoing investigation into Jones' allegations. And in December Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper cited other issues with the state government's transparency:

• The Florida Department of Health's county-level spokespeople were ordered in September to stop issuing public statements about COVID-19 until after the election.
• State officials withheld information about infections in schools, prisons, hospitals and nursing homes, relenting only under pressure or legal action from family members, advocacy groups and journalists.
• The governor highlighted statistics that would paint the rosiest picture possible and attempted to cast doubt on the validity of Florida's rising death toll.

Oh, and which state is the first to impose a law that requires social networking sites to publish whatever lies its politicians say or face a stiff fine? And under the same law means that those who are tasked with the job of fact-checking politicians lies must deposit a million dollars into a government bank account before they are even allowed to do it? Come on down, Florida.

 

Last modified on 31 May 2021
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