Rebekah Jones told the USA Today Network via an email that she developed two apps in two different languages, featuring four dashboards and six unique maps comprising data functionality layers for 32 variables comprising half a million lines of data. Her idea was to help Florida residents and researchers to have access to real-time information about the COVID-19 situation.
Much to her chagrin, she was then dismissed. In her email, Jones said it took her sixteen hours of work daily for two months but she wasn't paid for the extra hours she invested in creating the portal, and after this; she believes she won't get paid for it at all.
Jones wrote that she has not just been reassigned on May 5, but dismissed from her job at Geographic Information Systems where she served as the Florida Department of Health manager. After the report about her removal from the position in charge of the Florida COVID-19 Data and Surveillance she developed, Jones revealed that she was fired because she refused to manipulate the data to make it look more favorable for reopening.
While she refrained from divulging more details, Jones warned researchers in an email Friday that with her been dismissed the dashboard data is likely to be changed. She wrote that they are making several changes, urging researchers to bear this in mind while using the data.
Researchers who received the email were completely surprised and dismayed and suggested that it could be a sign that Gov. Ron De Santis' government was hiding key information to promote the campaign for re-opening Florida. Biologist and public health communicator at Columbia University Lucky Tran reacted to the email in multiple tweets noting that when politicians stop scientists and change the numbers, the people are likely to suffer.
Kathy Castor, US Congresswoman who represents Tampa Bay wrote Floridians will feel unsafe if the state reopens without transparency. Helen Aguirre Ferré, who is the spokeswoman for Florida's governor released a statement to Miami Herald, noting that The Florida COVID-19 Dashboard was developed by the GIS (Geographic Information System) team in the Division of Disease Control and Health Protection at the Florida Department of Health.
She added that despite Jones' dismissal, the GIS team is managing and updating the Dashboard to dole out accurate and vital details about the COVID-19 scene, which is accessible even to the public. Earlier emails from Jones suggest that she was the one responding to researchers' feedback in an attempt to enhance her product.