Rebekah Jones

Rebekah Jones was a geographer working for the Florida Department of Health when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. Her job was to build and manage the state’s official COVID-19 dashboard, the tool used to track cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Thanks to her expertise in geography and data systems, the dashboard she created quickly became a national model for clear, transparent information.

But behind the scenes, things were different.

As COVID cases in Florida began to rise, Jones was told by her supervisors to change the data  to hide the actual numbers so the state could justify reopening faster. She refused.

For standing by the truth, she was fired in May 2020.

Rather than stay silent, Jones launched her own independent COVID-19 dashboard, using publicly available data. Her version painted a more accurate and far more troubling picture of how the virus was spreading across Florida. She warned of outbreaks in schools, prisons, and nursing homes. Her dashboard became a trusted source for many who felt the state was covering up the crisis.