Head scientist responsible for Covid-19 portal for Florida was fired

[Savago]

Apparently someone within the Florida State government wanted her to manipulate the data to support the re-opening of the State:
https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2020/05/19/florida-scientist-refused-manipulate-covid-19-data-and-fired/5219137002/

She refused to falsify the data and was fired.

Kind reminds me of the HBO series 'Chernobyl', where the communist party silenced the scientists working on the disaster.

[Serk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC_lZLzCrOI

[Robert]

Interesting story but looking at her figures they are pretty much the same as what is posted for other sites then why would she be fired?

Florida has been open most of the time and if so would prove the rest of the country may have been wrong to close down as much.

If she was my worker and worked 16 hours a day on a side project or did not report the way I would want it, I would pretty much fire her also.

Interesting you picked this to post.

[hubcapsc]

“Rebekah Jones exhibited a repeated course of insubordination during her time with the department, including her unilateral decisions to modify the department’s COVID-19 dashboard without input or approval from the epidemiological team or her supervisors,” Ferré said. “The blatant disrespect for the professionals who were working around the clock to provide the important information for the COVID-19 website was harmful to the team. Accuracy and transparency are always indispensable, especially during an unprecedented public health emergency such as COVID-19. Having someone disruptive cannot be tolerated during this public pandemic, which led the department to determine that it was best to terminate her employment.”

Miami Herald

[carolinarider09]

I did a search and several "news outlets" have this story.  A comment from one gentlemen on one of the news sites sort of sums up my initial opinion.  Here is the comment from Dan T.

"Gee, I wonder if the governor was a democrat if this would be considered a local story and not reported at all by the leftist media. Something smells because it's Ron DeSantis and the democrats hate this guy. Is this another Dr. Bright type story? Watch and see how all the leftist media jumps all over this story. Florida and Texas had that recent story that showed how well they have handled their states over New York and California and the high amounts of debt that New York and California have compared to balanced budgets for Florida and Texas. Film at 11. Gee, anybody heard from Gillum lately?"


I then did a search to see if Florida was having a real surge in cases.  Hard to find data.  The American Spectator had an article in mid April.  Link below.  

https://spectator.org/florida-has-beaten-the-surge/


What is interesting is that it is hard to find a news story that is positive about Florida's reopening.  

As of today, according to The Miami Herald, there have been 2,073 deaths tied to COVID19.  But ABC News had the following headline on April 1, 2020 (I know an unfortunate date).  Forecasting COVID-19 model estimates Florida will have more than 7,000 deaths by August

So, if the forecast was correct, Florida will have to have 5,000 more deaths in June and July.  Highly unlikely.  

Florida has done the right thing.  We all need to return to normal.  

[John Schmidt]

Will be interesting to see what happens around Palm Beach. All the media said it's about to turn into a hotbed of infections due to its opening and all the folks collecting on the beaches. My guess is nothing unusual will happen. Sure, some will get sick but you're out in the open and in the breezes beachside. I doubt that's more of a danger than walking through a Publix supermarket for groceries. 

[Patrick]

Seems I remember it being said that the heat, humidity and sun kill the virus quickly. I think Florida is doing the right thing and wish I was still there. I keep getting pics from our friends [trying to rub it in] out in the heat, humidity and sun at our favorite joints and beach. NYS is still locked up tight, can't even get a haircut.

[carolinarider09]

Will be interesting to see what happens around Palm Beach. All the media said it's about to turn into a hotbed of infections due to its opening and all the folks collecting on the beaches. My guess is nothing unusual will happen. Sure, some will get sick but you're out in the open and in the breezes beachside. I doubt that's more of a danger than walking through a Publix supermarket for groceries. 

So, lets see what the "news cycle" does the week after Memorial day.   What do you think the reports will look like?

[scooperhsd]

If I was WAG right now -

"reports are coming in about increased Covid-19 infections from Palm Beach, Miami, and Broward County after Memorial Day weekend with a higher than normal crowd at the beach over the weekend" .....

[f6gal]

https://tallahasseereports.com/2020/05/20/rebekah-jones-firing-is-the-covid-clickbait-the-media-dreams-of-but-its-all-fake/

[carolinarider09]

Its interesting.  When I did my search I would swear one of the papers repeating the story was the one mentioned above.  If that is true, its very, very interesting. 

But glad someone finally got to the truth. 

[Serk]

https://tallahasseereports.com/2020/05/20/rebekah-jones-firing-is-the-covid-clickbait-the-media-dreams-of-but-its-all-fake/