Another Hoax Crumbles: Florida IG Report: ‘Insufficient Evidence’ For ‘Whistleblower’s’ Claims Florida Manipulated Covid Data
As previously reported, a fired dashboard designer claimed she was directed to manipulate Covid numbers by deleting Covid deaths and cases from Florida’s raw data are unsupported by evidence.
Conservative media called this out as a hoax back in 2020, but other media outlets didn’t report on the dubious claims in 2021.
Recall, Rebekah Jones claimed the state of Florida was ignoring public safety and manipulating its Covid data.
Governor Ron DeSantis was relentlessly attacked for reopening his state and because of Rebekah Jones’ claims, he was dubbed “DeathSantis.”
Jones claimed the state’s deputy director of health, Dr. Shamarial Roberson ordered her to change the data.
Jones’ former colleagues completely dismantled her claims and just like that, another hoax that was amplified by CNN fell apart.
CBS12 reported on the hoax last May:
CREDIBILITY QUESTIONED. Former colleagues of fired dashboard designer Rebekah Jones and public health experts tell CBS12 News her claims that she was directed to delete COVID cases and deaths from the state’s data are unsupported by the evidence.
Read: https://t.co/a2YzvkEpqs pic.twitter.com/wNrvioKKFo
— WPEC CBS12 News (@CBS12) May 26, 2021
Now this…
It turns out Rebekah Jones isn’t a ‘whistleblower’ – she’s just a liar who used her fame to launch a bid for Congress as a Democrat running against Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Rebekah Jones made “unsubstantiated” claims, according to a Florida Inspector General’s report obtained by NBC News.
NBC reported:
A prominent critic of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Covid response made “unsubstantiated” claims that state health officials had fired her because she refused to present manipulated data online, according to an inspector general’s report obtained by NBC News on Thursday.
The 27-page report from the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Inspector General said it found “insufficient evidence” to support Rebekah Jones’ accusations that she was asked to falsify Covid positivity rates or misrepresent them on the state’s dashboard she helped design. The report also “exonerated” officials accused by Jones of wrongdoing because they removed a data section from the website to ensure that private individual health information was not released publicly.
The independent report paints a portrait of an employee who did not understand public health policy or the significance of epidemiological data, did not have high-level access to crucial information and leveled claims that made professional health officials “skeptical.”
The report did not examine one of Jones’ most explosives claims: that Florida intentionally hid deaths to make the pandemic seem less deadly.
The post Another Hoax Crumbles: Florida IG Report: ‘Insufficient Evidence’ For ‘Whistleblower’s’ Claims Florida Manipulated Covid Data appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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