A common occurrence of our times is the flurry over an alleged scam which turns out to be false in the investigation. The latest case is the claim that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis manipulated COVID data.
Mr DeSantis became public-health enemy number one, defying the lockdown consensus of the Left at the start of the pandemic. When former state health department employee Rebekah Jones claimed she was fired for refusing to falsify state COVID data to support the state’s reopening in spring 2020, national and local media outlets Told his allegations as fact.
“Florida fired a scientist for refusing to manipulate the state’s coronavirus data,” NPR reported. After Florida’s Law Enforcement Department executed a search warrant for her home, Ms Jones claimed Mr DeSantis had “sent the Gestapo” to silence her. “FDLE raid dramatizes Florida’s COVID-19 coverup” editorialized the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
But according to the governor’s office, Ms Jones was fired for repeatedly “dismissing” and “making a unilateral decision to modify the department’s COVID-19 dashboard without input or approval from the epidemiology team or its supervisors”. was.
Police said they searched his house because of a data breach that traced the IP address of his home. He was charged with a felony for accessing and downloading confidential Health Department data, including personal information of employees. He has pleaded not guilty.
Now the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Inspector General has acquitted Mr. DeSantis. The IG interviewed more than a dozen people who worked with the state’s COVID data, including Ms Jones’ supervisor. No one confirmed his claims.
Some said he had told them they had been pressured to change the Covid case and death count, but their allegations made no sense to them, not least because they had the raw materials to do so. There was no access to the data. Ms Jones, a geographer by training who had previously worked on hurricane tracking systems, assisted with an online dashboard of COVID data only.
“If the complainant or other DOH staff had falsified the COVID-19 data on the dashboard, the dashboard would not have matched the data in the respective final daily reports,” the IG explained, adding that “such discrepancy” would certainly happen. Detected by Bureau of Epidemiology staff, researchers or the media. The IG found no truth in any of Ms Jones’ allegations.
One of the reasons why so many Americans don’t trust the media is that they find that partisan narratives lead to a lot of reporting. We wish they were wrong.
Wonder Land: The White House now says the US economy is ‘in transition’. He liked that part. Images: Universal Archive via Getty Images/AP Composite: Mark Kelly
opinion | Covid Confirmation for Ron DeSantis
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
photo:
Marco Bello/Reuters
A common occurrence of our times is the flurry over an alleged scam which turns out to be false in the investigation. The latest case is the claim that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis manipulated COVID data.
Mr DeSantis became public-health enemy number one, defying the lockdown consensus of the Left at the start of the pandemic. When former state health department employee Rebekah Jones claimed she was fired for refusing to falsify state COVID data to support the state’s reopening in spring 2020, national and local media outlets Told his allegations as fact.
“Florida fired a scientist for refusing to manipulate the state’s coronavirus data,” NPR reported. After Florida’s Law Enforcement Department executed a search warrant for her home, Ms Jones claimed Mr DeSantis had “sent the Gestapo” to silence her. “FDLE raid dramatizes Florida’s COVID-19 coverup” editorialized the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
But according to the governor’s office, Ms Jones was fired for repeatedly “dismissing” and “making a unilateral decision to modify the department’s COVID-19 dashboard without input or approval from the epidemiology team or its supervisors”. was.
Police said they searched his house because of a data breach that traced the IP address of his home. He was charged with a felony for accessing and downloading confidential Health Department data, including personal information of employees. He has pleaded not guilty.
Now the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Inspector General has acquitted Mr. DeSantis. The IG interviewed more than a dozen people who worked with the state’s COVID data, including Ms Jones’ supervisor. No one confirmed his claims.
Some said he had told them they had been pressured to change the Covid case and death count, but their allegations made no sense to them, not least because they had the raw materials to do so. There was no access to the data. Ms Jones, a geographer by training who had previously worked on hurricane tracking systems, assisted with an online dashboard of COVID data only.
“If the complainant or other DOH staff had falsified the COVID-19 data on the dashboard, the dashboard would not have matched the data in the respective final daily reports,” the IG explained, adding that “such discrepancy” would certainly happen. Detected by Bureau of Epidemiology staff, researchers or the media. The IG found no truth in any of Ms Jones’ allegations.
One of the reasons why so many Americans don’t trust the media is that they find that partisan narratives lead to a lot of reporting. We wish they were wrong.
Wonder Land: The White House now says the US economy is ‘in transition’. He liked that part. Images: Universal Archive via Getty Images/AP Composite: Mark Kelly
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Printed June 4, 2022, print edition as ‘Vengeance for Ron DeSantis’.