Florida Data Scientist Creates Her Own COVID-19 Dashboard
Dear Friends & Neighbors,
Rebekah Jones’ Floridacovidaction.com (Presented at: WindermereSun.com)
(Please click on red links & note magenta)
For updated global info & data on COVID-19, please click HERE.
For updated global data & graphs on COVID-19, please click HERE.
For COVID-19 cases and death counts in USA by state, please click HERE.
For COVID-19 cases in Florida, please click HERE.
The Florida data scientist, Rebekah Jones, creates new COVID-19 dashboard showing higher numbers than state reports. According to Ms. Jones, she was removed from the state’s project after she refused to manipulate COVID-19 stats to enable earlier reopening of rural counties. According to the site, Ms. Jones’ website floridacovidaction.com is paid for by donations, and Ms. Jones believes that “Florida deserves a community based dashboard that doesn’t hide or fudge numbers.”In the video “Fired Florida data scientist creates new COVID-19 dashboard showing higher numbers than state report“, below:
The woman who helped create Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard, and was fired after a dispute with state officials, has launched her own dashboard. Katie Johnston reports, in the video “Florida Data Official Rebekah Jones Creates COVID Dashboard That Shows More Cases Than State Reports“, below:
Rebekah Jones says her commitment to transparency is part of the reason she is no longer allowed to manage the dashboard, in the video “Woman who designed Florida’s coronavirus dashboard gets removed from the project“, below:
Former dashboard manager, Rebekah Jones created a new tool for tracking COVID-19 in Florida, in the video “‘All I’ve ever wanted was to help people,’ former COVID-19 dashboard manager says“, below:
Rebekah Jones says she was forced to leave her job overseeing Florida’s public coronavirus data portal after refusing to remove or change information that didn’t support the state’s reopening goals. And Florida isn’t the only state accused of altering or withholding data, or even withholding testing itself, in a bid to make it’s numbers look better, in the video “Florida Scientist Says She Was Ousted After Refusing To Manipulate State’s COVID-19 Data, MSNBC“, below:
Keep in mind that Ms. Jones’ website floridacovidaction.com is paid for by donations.
In case you’re wondering about Rebekah Jones’ background, please refer to the excerpt from wikipedia, in italics, below:
Rebekah D. Jones (born July 1989) is an American whistle-blower[citation needed] and geographer specialized in GIS data science to track hurricanes, epidemiology, and climatology. Until May 2020, she was geographic information sciences manager for the Florida Department of Health where she had served as the lead for the agency’s geospatial response during Hurricane Michael, Hurricane Dorian, and most recently, tracking the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida.[1]
Jones graduated cum laude from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University with dual degrees in Earth Science and Journalism in 2012, and received a dual master’s degree in geography and mass communication at the Louisiana State University in 2014.[2] In 2018, she became a GIS Analyst at Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee.[3] Jones was also a graduate student in the Department of Geography at Florida State University.[4]
She is best known for her widely cited Florida COVID-19 dashboard, which was taken offline in May 2020 after a dispute with her employer, the Florida Department of Health. Though officially fired for insubordination on May 18, she claimed it was due to internal department pressure to strategically align COVID-19 case data with Florida’s goal to reopen the state.[5] Within weeks she launched an independent dashboard using the same data science software and data extraction techniques, but using open data and offering instructions to others wishing to set up their own dashboards. Her dashboard offers more information than the official Florida dashboard, and explains calculations for aggregated data per county.[6] Her second dashboard also gained more views in the first 48 hours than the original dashboard she built at the Florida Department of Health.[7][failed verification]
Her story gained international attention before she was interviewed by CNN‘s Chris Cuomo.[8] Her story was also presented by Rachel Maddow as proof that Florida was hiding information about COVID-19 hospitalizations since late May 2020 in Florida.[9] Additionally, she appeared on multiple television and radio programs, including NPR,[10] CBS Miami,[11] and became a widely-recognized[citation needed] source for primary data and information about Florida’s COVID-19 cases. She was profiled by The Washington Post[12] and Time[13] after she founded the non-profit group Florida Covid Action.
Keep in mind that Ms. Jones’ website floridacovidaction.com is paid for by donations.
Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker More about the community at www.WindermereSun.com
We Need Fair Value of Solar
~Let’s Help One Another~
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
www.kiva.org/team/sunisthefuture
www.facebook.com/sunisthefuture
www.pinterest.com/sunisthefuture
<a style=”color: #ff0000;”
