A data scientist who created a dashboard to track Florida's COVID-19 cases says she's been fired from the state's health department for refusing to 'manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen.'
All of Florida entered Phase 1 recovery this week, when the two largest counties joined the rest of the state in opening restaurants, retail stores and barber shops. At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis called Jones's departure from the Health Department a"non-issue." He said he'd seen an email she sent her supervisor saying she never intended to suggest the information on the dashboard might be less reliable going forward.
Jones's removal from the project and her subsequent dismissal raises questions about the impartiality and transparency of Florida's COVID-19 Dashboard. Ben Sawyer is the director of Lab X at the University of Central Florida which is investigating how local health systems are coping with COVID-19 cases. He said Jones's removal from the project is"quite disturbing to me as a scientist and as a citizen.
Jones's dismissal also drew immediate criticism from Democratic members of Congress, including Kathy Castor, who represents the Tampa area. Castor is asking the governor to provide immediate answers as to why Rebekah Jones was fired."Amidst pressure to 'reopen' the state regardless of data and science," Castor wrote,"transparency is vital to keeping our neighbors safe and ensuring that they have confidence that our government is reporting honestly.
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