Florida's COVID-19 'dashboard' official: I was removed for refusing to 'manually change data'

Somehow, not a surprise.

The data scientist who managed Florida’s public “dashboard” of daily information on COVID-19 infection and deaths says she was removed from her position because she was ordered to censor some of the numbers, and she refused to “manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen.”

Rebekah Jones says she questions the Department of Health’s commitment to “accessibility and transparency.”

The Miami Herald reports:

Rebekah Jones, the geographic information system manager for DOH’s Division of Disease Control and Health Protection, wrote in an email, distributed Friday that authority over the dashboard was taken away from her office on May 5. The sharply worded email, which was shared with the Herald by a recipient of the message, was addressed to users of the state’s data portal, which includes researchers and journalists. It was not clear who replaced her and her staff.

“As a word of caution, I would not expect the new team to continue the same level of accessibility and transparency that I made central to the process during the first two months,” wrote Jones, who holds a Ph.D. in geography from Florida State University. “After all, my commitment to both is largely [arguably entirely] the reason I am no longer managing it.”

Florida’s COVID-19 website guru blasts bosses, hints at data suppression

[via @VeraMBergen]