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Government

Florida Health Department's Actions Investigated as Fired Data Manager Now Granted 'Whistleblower' Status (tampabay.com) 105

In March of 2020, Florida's governor was assuring the state that there was no evidence of Covid-19 in Florida, remembers the Washington Post. But there was — as far back as January.

The Miami Herald reports that when questioned Florida's Department of Health told its data manager to hide that data from public view, "emails from within the agency reviewed by the Miami Herald and others show." Eventually that data manager was fired, and within months her home had been raided by gun-toting police officers.

But that's not the end of the story. The latest development? That data manager is now instead "officially a whistleblower under Florida law, the Office of the Inspector General told her attorneys Friday," the Miami Herald reports. 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." Slashdot reader whoever57 notes the move "will grant her certain protections."

The Miami Herald reports: Rebekah Jones, who was responsible for building 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. In the complaint, filed July 17, 2020, Jones alleged she was fired for "opposition and resistance to instructions to falsify data in a government website." She described being asked to bend data analysis to fit pre-determined policy and delete data from public view after questions from the press — actions she claimed "represent an immediate injury to the public health, safety, and welfare, including the possibility of death to members of the public."

On Friday, the Office of the Inspector General informed Jones that "the information disclosed does meet the criteria for whistleblower status as described by ... Florida statutes," according to the email obtained by the Herald... "It's pretty huge," Jones told the Herald in response to the news. "This isn't vindication but this is a start. It's a big push forward...."

A department spokesperson said at the time that Jones was fired for "insubordination."

There's now an ongoing investigation into Jones' allegations. And in December Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper cited other issues with the state government's transparency:
  • The Florida Department of Health's county-level spokespeople were ordered in September to stop issuing public statements about COVID-19 until after the Nov. 3 election.
  • State officials withheld information about infections in schools, prisons, hospitals and nursing homes, relenting only under pressure or legal action from family members, advocacy groups and journalists.
  • The governor highlighted statistics that would paint the rosiest picture possible and attempted to cast doubt on the validity of Florida's rising death toll.

"Unfortunately, the possibility of the Department of Health manipulating information is not a stretch," writes the editorial board of the Miami Herald.

For that reason, they write that Jones' whistleblower victory "stands to be a win over state secrecy for the rest of us."


This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Florida Health Department's Actions Investigated as Fired Data Manager Now Granted 'Whistleblower' Status

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  • by laughingskeptic ( 1004414 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @12:02PM (#61437098)

    Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is in a no-win situation and facing having to defend Florida in a federal lawsuit. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news... [msn.com]

    Moody is hoping to bring this back into the state's control with this move. The discovery process for a civil rights case will be a nightmare for DeSantis on this. Every email, every "crush this girl" memo will be on full display. We are going to see immediate arguments in Federal court that this is not a Federal case and can be handled by Florida under Florida's laws and that things are proceeding under the law as they should be.

    • by DRJlaw ( 946416 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @01:02PM (#61437294)

      Moody is hoping to bring this back into the state's control with this move. The discovery process for a civil rights case will be a nightmare for DeSantis on this. Every email, every "crush this girl" memo will be on full display. We are going to see immediate arguments in Federal court that this is not a Federal case and can be handled by Florida under Florida's laws and that things are proceeding under the law as they should be.

      Nope. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is the one that had her civil rights complaint moved into Federal court in February. They're locked into that position unless Jones herself asks for the transfer to be reversed.

      • by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

        Broken link [msn.com] from the reply.

      • Nope. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is the one that had her civil rights complaint moved into Federal court in February.

        They must have thought their case was a lot stronger than it actually is. (That is, a lot stronger than I perceive it to be.)

  • Clearly she wasn't the only one with access to the data. Yet you see this pattern over and over again, within a team only a tiny portion have the guts to rise up against injustice.
    • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @12:19PM (#61437150)

      Translation: Only a tiny portion of society can afford to lose their job rather instantly.

      Between that and the don't-give-a-shit peanut butter spread across society, we really shouldn't be all that surprised.

    • by memnock ( 466995 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @02:10PM (#61437468)

      I listened to an interview with Dr. Jones a few weeks ago. She described her up-bringing as low income ("poor"). Thus, she said that she is used to being poor. She also said that she has a very strong urge to act ethically and morally and so she felt obligated to do the right thing and expose the malfeasance, even though it would risk her job. In the interview, she also said that there were other people in her department who were torn between keeping their jobs and exposing the corruption and that she has no ill-will toward those people who chose to keep their jobs, because she understood the need for people to keep a livelihood. Dr. Jones deserves a great deal of recognition for trying to serve the public in a highly ethical capacity.

      More than can be said for most of the state government in Florida. While they forced the rest of the state to reopen and kept local governments from deciding if they wanted masks or not, the state politicians hid behind the excuse of COVID-19 to keep meetings that should be public hidden from the public. What is supposedly the people's business and should be executed in daylight is performed behind closed door in shady circumstances.

      I don't remember the date of the interview on the show, but it was in one of the episodes here since probably February:
      https://www.wmnf.org/events/11... [wmnf.org]

      As an aside, that show used to be called "Radioactivity" (until about 3 weeks ago) and it was hosted by a guy name Rob Lorei. He was a fantastic host. Then the station's management decided to fire him for reasons that are still not public.

    • I kind of feel like it's in the "It's always in the last place you look" vein. You stopped looking after you found it.

      One person blew the whistle and had their life upended, anyone else who was thinking of doing the same wiped their foreheads and said "whew, it wasn't me."

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Oh, wait, it's in the US.

    Guess that's same shit different country then. Hope you all think of this when your are next ranting at China.

  • They don't care. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @12:18PM (#61437146)

    Government is 'enemy territory' to modern conservative ideals. Safe for any attacking actions, no matter the blowback.

    That woman put human lives and public awareness of health issues above conservative ideals. Slow-walking whistleblower status, then sending armed officers to teach a lesson to anyone who would act like her is the modern conservative ideal.

    There will be no repercussions, because Republicans control the levers of power here in Florida.

    That's kind of why this older generation reminds me of a concept.

    You can sometimes win every battle, with the biggest army - then still lose the war.

    There's a new biggest generation in history - and they've been kept from power for all their lives... the real war is against them, and has kind of always been against them this past 20 years or so.

    And by all polling, they're 60-40 to the older generation's 40-60, on basically every issue. Florida is the perfect example of what happens the more concentrated you get that older generation.

    But the whole nation will increasingly become that younger generation - and everything will change once that balance of power shifts.

    All these unconstitutional actions now are the temper tantrum that this is happening.

    Which is a shame - they could have taken the approach of actively working with the younger generation writ large, conveyed more of their most important values - but no, it's been 90% a game of keeping resources away from them, and keep power away at historically unusual levels.

    Which makes the concepts at the heart of modern conservative US values so weird and directly self-destructive. Not completely unseen in history - but very strange for modern times.

    Ryan Fenton

    • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @12:49PM (#61437240)
      between conservatives and the Authoritarian right wing. There is a difference

      Conservatives are just afraid of losing what little they have. The Authoritarian Right Wing recognized this and is exploiting it for political gain. The right wing is actually extremely radical in their policies and beliefs, and if conservatives weren't so inundated with well crafted propaganda they'd recognize that and abandon them.

      Driving a wedge between actual conservatives and the Authoritarians is necessary to protect democracy.
      • What's the practical difference between a radical authoritarian and an actual conservative who always voted for radical authoritarian candidates?

        • You can reason with conservatives. Remember a conservative is just afraid of losing something. If you remove that fear they become progressives. That's how we got the civil Rights movement. It was the 60s and the economy was really solid. Fear was alleviated so people are willing to allow progress.
      • Here is what the right wing believes should happen:
        https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]

    • But the whole nation will increasingly become that younger generation - and everything will change once that balance of power shifts.

      You mean the generation with their indifferent faces in their phones all day slurping up "news" from social media?

      Can't wait.

  • Thanks for posting this story 30 minutes after I submitted it, with no credit.

    • by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

      Thanks for posting this story 30 minutes after I submitted it, with no credit.

      You didn't even read the summary, did you.

      Slashdot reader whoever57 notes the move "will grant her certain protections."

      Otherwise, it was a pretty lazy submission. You're lucky to get mentioned at all.

      whoever57 writes:
      The person who claimed that she had been told to hide and manipulate some of Florida's COVID data has been granted whistleblower status by Floridaâ(TM)s Office of the Inspector General. This will grant her cert

    • Thanks for posting this story 30 minutes after I submitted it, with no credit.

      "Slashdot reader whoever57 notes the move "will grant her certain protections."

      Right, no credit what so ever.
      You idiotic ass wipe.

    • by ac22 ( 7754550 )

      Slashdot reader whoever57 notes the move "will grant her certain protections."

      What were you hoping for, the Nobel Peace Prize?

  • Hang Ron DeSantis by his Trumpy conservative ballsack.

  • Really sorry if this is a silly question to ask... but does anyone know which "OIG" made this determination please?

    I see that there is an OIG for Florida State [myflorida.com], which seems the most logical choice, but the Tampa Bay Times article isn't specific and I'm curious to know if it was a different one.

    Thanks in advance for anyone who can fill in that blank...
    • Really sorry if this is a silly question to ask... but does anyone know which "OIG" made this determination please?

      I see that there is an OIG for Florida State [myflorida.com], which seems the most logical choice, but the Tampa Bay Times article isn't specific and I'm curious to know if it was a different one.

      Thanks in advance for anyone who can fill in that blank...

      It also says the determination was

      under Florida law

      so there is no ambiguity; it was the Flordia OIG.

  • ...they have to flee to Russia, and can never, ever come back? That seems a bit harsh doesn't it?
  • by theCat ( 36907 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @04:12PM (#61437754) Journal

    ... in Florida. If this starts to go very far, people will start to flip into the investigation camp. It would be nice if this made its way to DeSantis and that smarmy fecker ended up in an orange jumpsuit as a result.

  • by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @11:00PM (#61438612) Journal
    Just no. [reason.com]
    • That's silly they wouldn't of raid her house with armed police unless what she was saying was true. Actions speak far louder than words.
  • That is a little bit scary that such people have access to private information. It is necessary to make a real casting for such vacancies, as I think. I am just looking for a new job on the website here [jooble.org] and every firm have really serious interviews and it is not so easy to receive the job. But I am hearing that on such important vacancies like that manager so bad people are working. I hope that they will investigate this situation and all will be okay here.

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