Scientist creates own COVID-19 dashboard after she was fired by Florida health department

A Florida based scientist who was fired by the Florida department of health in May has created her own Data and Surveillance Dashboard for COVID-19. Rebekah Jones was managing the state’s coronavirus information dashboard and claims that she did not comply to manipulate data and downplay the severity of COVID-19 so that the state could implement its plans to reopen its economy. 

According to Jones’s online database, Florida’s Community Coronavirus Dashboard, only one of 67 counties met the criteria to ease restrictions, further, it states, the site provided data Florida’s Department of Health (DOH) had earlier attempted to withhold from the public knowledge or view. Jones was quoted as saying, she wanted to build an application that delivered data and helped people get tested and helped them get resources that they need from their community.

Further, she added, though almost similar in appearance, the data presented on her dashboard was markedly different than the data on the dashboard populated by the Department of Health. Jones was tasked with creating a similar type of dashboard for the health department's website in her role as a geographic information system manager, however, the data wouldn’t be real, she revealed to the US media outlet.  

Adding that the state’s politicized arguments about reopening governed the statistics, Jones reportedly said, when she went on to show to the authorities what the report card would say for each county, among other things, they asked her to delete the report card because it showed that no counties, pretty much, were ready for reopening. Additionally, she was asked by the superior to alter the state's coronavirus positivity rating from 18% to 10% so that the state would have met the target to resume businesses.

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Highest seven-day average of coronavirus cases

The dashboard Jones created (https://floridacovidaction.com/) depicts more coronavirus cases than the Florida DoH site. The website lists over 83,720 positive cases and 3,022 deaths compared with 75,568 cases and 2,931 deaths on the government's portal. Florida, on June 15, hit its highest seven-day average of coronavirus cases since the pandemic arrived in the US, according to local media reports. Over the weekend, the state registered record levels of new coronavirus cases that exceeded 2,000 as per the state health department’s tally.  Currently, the United States has 2,182,950 confirmed cases and as many as 118,283 people have succumbed to the disease.  

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