Image: Screenshot, June 24 2020. Source: CNN.com
Rebekah Jones, who created the Florida Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard, alleges that the state has been manipulating data on cases and deaths in order to make it appear as if the state has the coronavirus under control.
Jones, who was fired in May after she questioned the transparency of Florida’s publicly released data (the state said that she was removed for violating a public comment policy), has since launched her own dashboard, whose numbers are higher than those that the state officially reports.
Tuesday late afternoon on Twitter, Jones alleged in a series of tweets that Department of Health employees had been told to alter and delete numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths to make it look like “Florida is improving next week in the leadup to July 4.”
BREAKING: 1 OF 3: Florida announced yesterday they’re not counting the icu bed availability anymore, a key element in keeping things open, so the state can proceed to the next phase by July 4.
— Rebekah Jones aka #Insubordinate #scientist (@GeoRebekah) June 23, 2020
BREAKING 2 OF 3 I have multiple sources at DOH who have just told me they have been instructed this week to change the numbers and begin slowly deleting deaths and cases so it looks like Florida is improving next week in the leadup to July 4, like they’ve “made it over the hump.”
— Rebekah Jones aka #Insubordinate #scientist (@GeoRebekah) June 23, 2020
BREAKING 3 OF 3 I’ve independently verified they’ve deleted at least 1200 cases in the last week.They’re only reporting all these cases now so they can restrict reporting next week to make everyone think it’s over. I’ve had two DOH employees in different offices confirm
— Rebekah Jones aka #Insubordinate #scientist (@GeoRebekah) June 23, 2020
Jones appeared on CNN New Day today to discuss her damning tweets.
Rebekah Jones, the data official behind Florida’s Covid-19 dashboard, was removed after she questioned the data’s transparency, according to Florida Today. Now she has launched her own dashboard, which reports different numbers.https://t.co/BTNXSgi4ul pic.twitter.com/J7aCVy2F6s
— New Day (@NewDay) June 24, 2020
I wouldn’t come forward with anything unless I had vetted it myself fully. There was a lot of pressure when I was first fired for not changing the numbers, to speak toward the Governor’s [Ron DeSantis] role or this greater conspiracy, [but] I was very clear, I never said any of that. I didn’t have any personal evidence that any of that was going on [at that time]. There are a few brave souls at DOH who still talk to me and communicate with me. They’ve forwarded me emails, communications, other documentation. I have checked my numbers myself through the data and the information that the DOH publishes and unfortunately, that does seem to be what’s going on.
The official data being released by Florida is already dire enough, but If even a fraction of what Jones alleges is true, the Florida Department of Health and Governor DeSantis have a lot of explaining to do.
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Edward Kim is Managing Editor of Equities News.
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Source: Equities News
