Report fails to support claims that Florida COVID-19 data was doctored

A state investigation discovered no proof of wrongdoing in reference to the explosive allegations introduced by Florida’s former coronavirus information skilled, who had accused high state well being officers two years in the past of firing her for refusing to govern COVID-19 information to help the push to reopen Florida after months of quarantine.

Particular allegations raised by former company information supervisor Rebekah Jones — who gained nationwide media consideration together with her sensational accusations towards the DeSantis administration — have been both “unsubstantiated,” which means there was inadequate proof to show or disprove, or “unfounded,” concluding the alleged conduct did not happen, in accordance with the findings.

The investigation was carried out by the Florida Division of Well being’s Workplace of Chief Inspector Common, Michael J. Bennett, who investigates whistleblower complaints. Bennett experiences to Chief Inspector Common Melinda Miguel inside Gov. Ron DeSantis’ workplace.

The OIG report helps the DeSantis’ administration which stated there have been no makes an attempt to falsify the information the governor relied on to start reopening the state financial system in April 2020 following a quick, statewide COVID-19 lockdown.

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Jones was fired a month later after she stated she refused to falsify virus information. When she went public, DeSantis lashed out at Jones over her skilled credentials and portrayed her as a disruptive worker and felony.

Jones is now a Democratic candidate for Congress, working to unseat U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Seaside. Jones stated Friday that she has not but acquired a replica of the ultimate OIG report.

She plans to sue the state in federal court docket for wrongful dismissal now that the state investigation is full.

“”It is one thing that is been a life-defining expertise,” Jones stated of her confrontation with the DeSantis administration over the COVID-19 information.

“It is not one thing I’m ever going to overlook or really each recover from….In some methods it is a aid to have this factor over after two years.”

She added, “I do not assume it was ever life like for them to come back out and be like, ‘yeah, every thing she stated is true, we’re sorry, my dangerous.’”

DeSantis spokeswoman Taryn Fenske declined additional remark, saying, “The report speaks for itself.”

The OIG findings, dated March 9, 2022, was first reported by NBC Information late Thursday afternoon. The 27-page report and Jones’s 70-page rebuttal, was obtained by USA Right now Community-Florida.

Jones, who was granted whistleblower standing to pursue her costs, filed the unique criticism on July 16, 2020, with the Florida Fee on Human Rights. It was later forwarded to the OIG. 

Investigators regarded into 4 allegations raised by Jones towards high well being division officers solely months after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 

These named have been Courtney Coppola, the company’s former Chief of Workers; Dr. Shamarial Roberson, the previous deputy secretary; Carina Blackmore, director of the company’s Medical and Well being Companies, throughout the Division of Illness Management and Well being Safety; and, Patrick “Scott” Pritchard, who labored within the Bureau of Communicable Illnesses, which is a part of the Division of Illness Management and Well being.

Investigators stated Jones’s declare that Roberson directed her and different DOH employees to falsify COVID-19 positivity charges as “unsubstantiated.” A second declare that Coppola “pressured” her to falsify COVID-19 positivity charges was additionally deemed “unsubstantiated.” A 3rd allegation that Roberson and Dr. Blackmore directed her to misrepresent the company’s COVID-19 Information and Surveillance Dashboard was “unfounded.”

On the fourth allegation, OIG investigators decided that Dr. Roberson, Dr. Blackmore, and Pritchard did inform Jones to limit entry to underlying information that supported what appeared on the state’s COVID-19 Information and Surveillance Dashboard. However the motion was “not discovered to be a violation of

any governing directive.”

Jones, whose 70-page rebuttal was hooked up to the OIG’s 27-page report, went at size to dispute the OIG’s findings, point-by-point, writing that “administrators of a number of state companies and directors throughout the DOH (well being division), AHCA (Company for Well being Care Administration) and DEM (Division of Emergency Administration) expressed frustration and even worry about how the pandemic was dealt with, and thus a worry in telling the reality.”

“Statements from different state officers present that the complete weight and energy of the state authorities of Florida was used to subsequently goal me for persevering with to talk out and report COVID-19 information, together with the Governor himself,” she instructed the OIG.

Jones additionally introduced proof of emails and different communication, together with a textual content message change with Wesley Payne, then-director of inside communications for the Well being Division, who had approached the OIG with “related complaints” about deceptive COVID-19 information.

Jones’s lawyer Rick Johnson instructed NBC Information that his consumer would go to court docket to argue that she was wrongly dismissed from her job. “It is easy: She was fired for refusing to govern Covid information,” Johnson instructed NBC.

Jones was fired because the Florida Well being Division’s geographic info techniques supervisor in Could 2020 after publicly accusing state officers of asking her to wrongly manipulate COVID-19 information, which the federal government disputed from the start.

She then launched her personal dashboard monitoring circumstances in June and stored accusing the DeSantis administration of falsifying information to make Florida look higher.

At one level, Jones stated her workplace had directed her former coworkers to “change the numbers and start slowly deleting deaths and circumstances so it seems like Florida is bettering subsequent week.”

When pressed for proof, she identified that the state’s official tally didn’t embody out-of-state residents who died of COVID-19 in Florida — though the determine in query was described as “deaths in Florida residents.”

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The allegations she raised towards the DeSantis administration and high state well being officers positioned her within the nationwide media highlight. She appeared on CNN, CBS Information, MSNBC and different main tv networks, sounding the alarm in regards to the Florida authorities’s dealing with of the pandemic. 

Florida Democrats seized on Jones’ claims. Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who’s now working for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, demanded Jones be allowed to talk for herself to the Florida Cupboard at its assembly in Could 2020. It did not occur.

Extra controversy and intrigue adopted in December 2020 when Jones posted a video of armed Florida Division of Regulation Enforcement brokers raiding her Tallahassee residence.

State investigators have been executing a search warrant that they’d possible trigger to imagine Jones was behind an nameless message despatched final November to Jones’ former colleagues on the well being division  utilizing the emergency operations ReadyOps system. The investigation is pending.

Jones has different authorized points. She faces a pending misdemeanor cost of cyberstalking pre-dating her work on COVID-19 that has been utilized by lots of Jones’ critics to assault her credibility.

The difficulty arose out of a 2017 relationship Jones had with a school pupil whereas Jones was a doctoral candidate at Florida State College. 

The incident was detailed in a greater than 300-page doc Jones wrote and posted on-line, which was submitted in her court docket case.

Jones misplaced her graduate assistant instructing place at FSU over the affair, and her on-line publish in regards to the relationship resulted within the cost of stalking. When she was employed by the state well being division in 2019, her hiring paperwork famous the pending costs, however she was cleared to be employed. 

Jones, who now lives within the Panhandle metropolis of Navarre, is working within the August 23 Democratic major within the closely Republican First District represented since 2017 by Gaetz, a detailed ally of former President Trump.

Sergio Bustos is Enterprise/Politics Editor for Florida’s Gannett/USA Right now Community. He is primarily based in South Florida. E mail: floridapolitics@gannett.com

John Kennedy is a reporter within the Capital Bureau, USA Right now Community-Florida. He may be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, 850-321-0572, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport