Florida data scientist says she was fired for refusing to ‘manipulate’ COVID-19 statistics

The architect of Florida’s COVID-19 data dashboard claims that she was fired by the state’s health department for refusing to “manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen.”

Rebekah Jones, who managed the dashboard praised by the White House, first announced that she had been removed on May 5 as the Geographic Information Systems manager for the Florida Department of Health in a farewell note citing “reasons beyond my division’s control,” Florida Today reported.

Jones later told the outlet that she had been fired by the department for refusing to “manipulate data.” Continue reading.