Data inquiry sought
South Florida state legislator wants virus numbers investigated
A South Florida senator wants the Florida Legislature to investigate allegations made by an ousted data curator that state health officials manipulated COVID-19 statistics to paint a rosier picture.
State Sen. José Javier Rodríguez, D-Miami, requested that Republican Senate President Bill Galvano appoint a bipartisan panel of legislators empowered to seek information and communications related to Florida’s data collection during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Events over the last few months have eroded the public’s trust of public health information and called into question the transparency upon which Floridians must rely,” Rodriguez wrote in a letter Wednesday.
Galvano is reviewing the request, Senate spokeswoman Katie Betta said.
Rebekah Jones, who worked on the state’s COVID-19 data dashboard, has accused state officials of firing her in retribution for voicing concerns about how data was presented on the state’s dashboard.
In a CNN interview, Jones said she opposed how the state was presenting testing data for smaller counties to make the case for reopening.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Health Department officials have denied manipulating data and say Florida has led the nation in transparency.
Jones was dismissed because of “a repeated course of insubordination” during her time with the Department of Health, Helen Ferre, a DeSantis spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Jones had been reprimanded several times and ultimately fired for violating Health Department policy by making public remarks about COVID-19 data, according to The Associated Press, which reviewed her personnel file.
Rodriguez cited other examples of why he thinks an investigation is needed. The state refused to release aggregate data on COVID-19 testing and surveillance in February before Florida’s first case of coronavirus was detected. It also resisted providing information on COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes, only releasing the information after media outlets filed a lawsuit.