Loss for Florida ‘whistleblower’
‘No proof’ COV ‘stats-fixing’ led to ax
Florida investigators have rejected a former health department employee’s claim that she was fired for refusing to rig COVID stats to benefit Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The Florida Department of Health’s Office of Inspector General found “insufficient” or no evidence that Rebekah Jones was told to manipulate or misrepresent pandemic numbers, NBC reported.
Jones, who ran Florida’s COVID-19 data dashboard, vaulted to national prominence after accusing superiors of fudging data to bolster DeSantis’ case to ease restrictions.
Featured across several media outlets as a principled whistleblower defending against COVID-19 misinformation, Jones launched successful fundraising campaigns to back her cause.
But Florida officials denied her charges from the outset and said that she was motivated by political animus towards DeSantis and his Republican administration. She was fired one month after making her claims.
Jones is currently a Democratic candidate for Congress and is running against incumbent Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.
She still plans to sue the state for wrongful dismissal, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
“I don’t think it was ever realistic for them to come out and be like, ‘Yeah, everything she said is true, we’re sorry, my bad,’ ” she told the paper.
Counter-claims
Her critics have pointed to past legal incidents in attacking her credibility.
Jones, a data scientist, was hit with a cyberstalking charge stemming from a relationship she had with a Florida State student while teaching at the school.
A DeSantis spokesperson, Taryn Fenske, has characterized her as a “discredited conspiracy theorist.”
Florida cops raided her home in December 2020 on suspicion that she sent an anonymous message to her former co-workers at the health department urging them to speak out against DeSantis and the handling of COVID data. That case is pending.
Her attorney, Rick Johnson, defended his client in the wake of the new report and said she remains a “whistleblower” and will pursue additional legal action.
“It’s simple,” he told NBC. “She was fired for refusing to manipulate COVID data.”
The investigation into her claims of data doctoring was handled by the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Chief Inspector General, Michael J. Bennett.
DeSantis lobbied to curb COVID-19
restrictions earlier than other states and now credits that approach for allowing Florida’s economy to recover more quickly than other regions of the country.
Critics argue that the strategy was premature and failed to properly account for the gravity of the pandemic.