The data scientist fired after raising questions about Florida’s COVID-19 numbers has launched her own coronavirus dashboard.
Rebekah Jones, 30, was ousted last month for violating Health Department policy by making public remarks about the information, state records show.
On Sunday new daily coronavirus cases in the Sunshine State exceeded 2,000 for a second day in a row. That has forced some bars and restaurants to close their doors again because workers or patrons have tested positive.
Now Jones has now launched her own dashboard; her data shows only two counties out of 67 currently meet the requirements for further easing of lockdown.
She told NPR: ‘When I went to show them what the report card would say for each county, among other things, they asked me to delete the report card because it showed that no counties, pretty much, were ready for reopening.
‘And they didn’t want to draw attention to that.’
Jones continues to question the way the state records how many people test positive; she says positive cases are recorded just once while repeat negative cases, such as frontline workers who are tested regularly, are noted each time.
That means a big discrepancy between the confirmed cases Jones’ site shows – 83,720 as of Sunday evening – and the official tally, which stands at 75,568.
Jones’ site also shows 1,080,439 tested; the official figures stands at more than 1.4 million. And the death toll on Jones’ site reads 3,022, the official death toll in the state is 2,931.
Most of Florida began easing lockdown on May 4; further restrictions were eased June 5 with bars and movie theaters allowed to reopen. Beaches are also opening across the state.
Rebekah Jones, 30, was ousted for violating Health Department policy by making public remarks about the information, state records show
Jones’ site is pictured; her data shows only two counties out of 67 currently meet the requirements for further easing of lockdown
The official site is pictured: Jones continues to question the way the state records how many people test positive; she says positive cases are recorded just once while repeat negative cases, such as frontline workers who are tested regularly, are noted each time
Florida started letting restaurants reopen last month and bars opened their doors last week after they were forced to close to stop the spread of the virus.
But a surge in positive coronavirus cases has seen a number forced to close their doors yet again.
In the Orlando suburb of Altamonte Springs, a restaurant closed temporarily after some patrons notified the owner about testing positive and some staffers started exhibiting symptoms, though not at work.
Three bars in downtown St. Petersburg and two restaurants in the city’s restaurant district temporarily closed recently after some staffers tested positive for the virus.
And two restaurants in Naples closed temporarily within the past week or so due to coronavirus concerns.
The Florida Department of Health reported that Florida had 75,568 total cases and 2,931 related deaths.
The surge in positive coronavirus cases comes as Florida is set to become a hub for major sports leagues.
The NBA, Major League Soccer, the Amateur Athletics Union Junior Olympics and others plan to hold games and events in Florida, potentially drawing thousands of people to the state from around the world.
Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay opened their doors this month, and Walt Disney World is set to reopen its theme parks next month.
Following Jones’ claims state health officials had strenuously denied any issue with the information’s accuracy. Gov. Ron DeSantis said Jones had a pattern of ‘insubordination’ and should have been fired months ago.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Jones had a pattern of ‘insubordination’ and should have been fired months ago
Jones had earlier suggested Health Department managers wanted her to manipulate information to paint a rosier picture and that she pushed back.
In an interview with CNN she said the state made changes in April to support its initial reopening May 4, for example by altering the way it reports the positivity rate of testing in a way she disagreed with.
Jones was arrested over revenge porn and cyber stalking allegations
Instead of showing the rate of all positive tests, it began showing the rate of new positive tests — filtering out people who previously tested positive.
This was not a behind-the-scenes change. DeSantis announced it at an April 24 news conference, arguing it was the better figure for assessing trends in testing and control of the outbreak.
Jones also said she opposed how health officials decided to exempt rural counties below 75,000 population from more stringent criteria for reopening — such as showing a downward trajectory of new cases or case positivity in the past 14 days.
However, federal guidelines allow states to compute criteria at the state level or to tailor a regional approach that takes into account the severity of outbreak in regions.
Florida’s small rural counties have had fewer cases and deaths — 21 of them have had no deaths. In such counties, a favorable 14-day trend could easily be upended by a small — but containable — spike in cases.
In the CNN interview, Jones was asked whether she was removed because of an attitude problem.
‘Somewhat, yes, if refusing to mislead the public during a health crisis is insubordination then I will wear that badge with honor,’ Jones answered.
Florida releases its data daily in three ways that Jones helped manage: reports in text and graphics, a dashboard map and a raw data hub, including breakdowns at county and ZIP code levels.
Federal coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Brix has praised Florida’s presentation as especially granular and user-friendly.
Jones was told to resign or be fired after a pattern of overstepping her duties as data manager. The final straw came May 15, when she vented in emails to researchers and other data recipients that she’d been reassigned, suggesting they should now doubt the data’s integrity.
Miami-Dade County beaches that have been closed because of the coronavirus pandemic have reopened
A woman wears a face shield as she wades in the ocean off South Beach on June 10
Documents show a supervisor warned Jones on April 9 after she posted a message on a newspaper Facebook page about the dashboard. She was told she needs approval before publicly discussing the work.
Less than two weeks later, she was warned again when a mapping company’s online magazine published an extensive interview with Jones.
Her supervisor later found a public blog in which Jones discussed the dashboard, released unauthorized charts and added ‘political commentary’ in posts that appear to have been taken down.
The supervisor, Craig Curry, detailed each incident in an email to the department’s human resources office on May 6 and was told he could begin the process of firing her. But in that same email, Curry also praised Jones, saying she did ‘fantastic work.’
With an expertise in geography and tropical storms, Jones, 30, also has cited her dismay over Health Department officials taking down a category field in line data for individual COVID-19 cases — but says all data was restored later unaltered.
Deputy Secretary for Health Dr. Shamarial Roberson said that Jones’s pushback was over the ‘EventDate’ category, which is when a patient reports first remembering having possible symptoms and is separate from when the illness is confirmed.
‘Event date is not the important field,’ Roberson said. ‘A case is deemed when you have that laboratory result as positive.’
Roberson said Florida’s data is updated as it becomes available daily. ‘Every day our data is accurate, it’s factual, it’s true, it’s transparent,’ she said.
A DailyMail.com investigation revealed Jones, a married mother-of-two, was also fired from Florida State University for having an affair with one of her students while she herself was a PhD student and instructor in 2017.
The affair – which she chronicled in great detail in a 342-page essay that she filed as part of a now dismissed defamation case – ended with three arrests and revenge porn and cyber stalking cases against her as well as her claim of a pregnancy.