Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended the firing of data scientist Rebekah Jones, and attacked her claims that she created the state's highly-praised COVID-19 dashboard portal.
public health researchers in an email that she'd been removed from the project."As a word of caution," she wrote,"I would not expect the new team to continue the same level of accessibility and transparency that I made central to the process during the first two months. After all, my commitment to both is largely the reason I am no longer managing it."
In Orlando on Wednesday, DeSantis said,"Our data is available. Our data is transparent. In fact, Dr. Birx has talked multiple times about how Florida has the absolute best data. So any insinuation otherwise is just typical partisan narrative trying to be spun."DeSantis says he has also learned since her firing that Jones faces criminal stalking charges.
Ben Sawyer, director of LabX at the University of Central Florida, which is investigating how local health systems are coping with COVID-19 cases, said her ouster is"quite disturbing to me as a scientist and as a citizen."
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