Story at a glance
- A former employee of the Florida Department of Health says she was pushed out for refusing to manipulate data.
- She has now launched her own website using donations to track coronavirus cases in the state.
- The governor lashed out against Jones during a press conference, calling her “insubordinate.”
A former employee of the Florida Department of Health (DOH) said she was “ousted” after refusing to manipulate coronavirus data and is now taking matters into her own hands.
“Florida deserves a community based dashboard that doesn’t hide or fudge numbers,” she wrote on a GoFundMe page raising money to launch and maintain her own online coronavirus tracker, challenging the state’s official dashboard.
Rebekah Jones, who posted the fundraiser on May 23, has launched “Florida’s Community Coronavirus Dashboard,” which pulls from DOH case data. But a notice on the website says she is working to collect the data independently, saying the DOH occasionally pulls data offline intentionally. She encourages visitors to email Florida health officials to ask about missing and delayed data, as well as alleged errors, including the exclusion of those who receive positive antibody test results from the total number of COVID-19 cases reported.
“Any cumulative count of positive people in Florida should include any person who has a confirmed-positive lab result, whether tested while symptomatic or not. This helps us better track the disease burden on healthcare systems and its spread in the community,” Jones’ new website said.
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Some public health officials have challenged the inclusion of antibody results, as the serology tests are reportedly more prone to false positives. On the website, Jones also identifies the data from both tests separately.
In a statement, Alberto Moscoso, Director of Communications for the Florida DOH, said, “The Department’s goal has always been to provide accurate, confirmed information regarding COVID-19 in Florida in as expeditious a manner as is possible. We will continue to employ only official sources of information, ensuring that our online resources are the most factual and up-to-date available.”
The Associated Press (AP) reported that state records show Jones had been reprimanded several times before being fired for violating Health Department policy by making public remarks about the information. In a press conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said she had a pattern of “insubordination” and should have been fired earlier.
Asked about the assertion, Jones told CNN, “If refusing to mislead the public during a health crisis is insubordination then I will wear that badge with honor.”
Deputy Secretary for Health Shamarial Roberson told the AP that Jones had challenged the “EventDate” category, which represents when a patient reports having possible symptoms.
“Event date is not the important field,” Roberson told the AP. “A case is deemed when you have that laboratory result as positive.”
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Another issue Jones raised is the exclusion of nonresidents from Florida’s demographic data, zip code data, death data and case data over time. In a response, the Florida DOH said including that data is “contrary to CDC recommendations and creates instances where deaths may be reported more than once across multiple states or countries.”
In updates to the GoFundMe page, Jones said some of the more than $150,000 raised has gone towards buying a laptop and license in order to recreate the dashboard she had been working on for the DOH. She is also using the funds to cover basic living expenses and travel fees, but says she plans to stop fundraising once she finds a new job.
Jones plans to continue the project “for as long as the people want it.”
“I decided to stop wallowing in self-pity and do something constructive, something useful with the skill set I’ve been using for so long,” Jones told the Palm Beach Post. “People have a right to know what’s going on in a straightforward nonpolitical kind of way.”
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