Stefan Mileschin

Data science to called out Florida's governor’s lies will get some protection

Last year Florida's governor Ronald Dion DeSantis attempted to lie to the state by assuring them that there was no evidence of COVID-19 in Florida, even when he knew that the state was one of the first infected.

To get around the small matter of “information” and “facts” Florida's Department of Health told its data manager Rebekah Jones to hide that data from public view.

Emails from within the agency reviewed by the Miami Herald and others show eventually Jones manager was fired, mostly because she felt lying was not cricket.

Florida’s government responded by raiding her house with armed cops in an attempt to get her to shut up.

Now it seems that things have moved against Florida’s governor and Jones has been officially made a whistleblower under Florida law by the Office of the Inspector General.

The Inspector-General now says the data manager has indeed shown "reasonable cause to suspect that an employee or agent of an agency or independent contractor has violated a federal, state or local law, rule or regulation". The move "will grant her certain protections".

Jones built the COVID-19 data dashboard for the Florida Department of Health, was fired last year after raising concerns about "misleading data" being presented to the public, according to the complaint, which was reviewed by the Miami Herald.

https://fudzilla.com/news/52951-rebe...eblower-status