Publicly speaking for the first time via an interview, a public statement she emailed to the news organization, Florida Today, and posted on her blog, Rebekah Jones, the fired Florida Department of Health scientist, on Friday night, defended herself and revealed bare allegations of corrupt meddling in the COVID-19 data of the state by top officials.

While she precisely does not insinuate that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was involved in initiatives to message or conceal information on the COVID-19 dashboard of the state, Jones illustrated an image of senior officials of the FDOH excessively eager to pacify the governor, as well as his plans of reopening Florida.

Allegedly Asked to Manipulate COVID-19 Data

The former FDOH scientist, news reports said, is attributed to constructing, designing, and handling the COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard of the state, which researchers, including a White House scientist, commend as a "shining example of transparency."

However, last week, Jones said via an email, she was taken out of the controls of the dashboard as of early May due to her commitment to what she called, "accessibility and transparency."

After the story came out in Florida Today, Jones alleged further that she was fired because she refused to "manually change data" to favor the plan to reopen. 

Few days after she was fired, Jones said, DeSantis, as well as the other so-called conservative voices, attacked her credibility, credentials, and character. She added that the importance of the role she played in the department was downplayed, as well.

The Governor's Stance

According to reports, Governor DeSantis, said, the ouster of Jones during a roundtable on Wednesday with Vice President Mike Pence "was a nonissue."

The state's Deputy Secretary of Health, Shamarial Roberson, on the other hand, said via a statement sent to the Times that it is blatantly false to say that the FDOH "has manipulated any data."

In addition, a spokeswoman for the governor explained to the Miami Herald that the former health department scientist was ousted from her position due to "a repeated course of insubordination."

The spokesperson also said this included modification of the COVID-19 dashboard of the department. Jones did not specify though, what particular data in the dashboard had been manipulated. 

She did not specify either, how she was asked to change the said data. She said though, that she had no knowledge about the" identity of the outside vendor" that, she said, provided the data.

As the official records show, as of this writing, Florida has reported only more than 50,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, based on data from John Hopkins. In addition, more than 2,200 deaths from the virus have been reported, according to FDOH. 

Florida started Phase 1 of its reopening in early May as Jones alleged she was instructed to remove the COVID-19 data. 

Meanwhile, restaurants in the state started to allow dine-in customers without more than half the capacity earlier this week, along with museums, gyms, and stores.

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