Rebekah Jones

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. She received a dual master's degree in geography and mass communication at Louisiana State University in 2014.[2]

Jones was also a graduate student in the Department of Geography at Florida State University from 2016 through 2018[9] where she completed course work with an emphasis on data science and was working on a doctoral dissertation titled Using Native American Sitescapes to Extend the North American Paleotempestological Record Through Coupled Remote Sensing and Climatological Analysis.[6][10][9] According to Jones, her doctoral work is in progress.[2]

Jones made headlines in May 2020 after alleging that the Florida Department of Health pressured her to strategically align COVID-19 case data with Florida's goal to reopen the state. State records indicate that Jones was fired for violating Health Department policy by making public remarks about the data.[11] Despite protests by Nikki Fried, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Jones was not reinstated.[12] The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association of GIS professionals wrote a letter to Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, stating among other things, "While all the facts have yet to be made public, we are concerned that the actions taken potentially put the public at risk and prevented a certified GIS professional from following the Code of Ethics that guides all GIS professionals working in government, non-profit and private sector positions."[13] The American Association of Geographers also wrote a letter to DeSantis titled "Geography Matters" to emphasize the role of geographic data scientists in public health and epidemiology. Jones was among the 683 signers of the letter but was not otherwise mentioned therein.[14]

Within weeks, Jones launched an independent dashboard of the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida 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. Her second dashboard also gained more views in the first 48 hours than the original dashboard she built at the Florida Department of Health, according to her website. In August, she launched a second COVID-19 dashboard specifically to track cases in schools prior to the 2020 fall school opening. Initially, the state did not release any data at all for schools, eventually doing so in September. Local newspapers used her dashboard for coverage of the state data.[15]

Her story gained international attention before she was interviewed by CNN's Chris Cuomo.[16] Her story, also presented by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, suggests that Florida was hiding information about COVID-19 hospitalizations since late May 2020.[17] Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refuted her claims in June 2020, saying Jones has "no evidence" and calling her accusations "embarrassing".[18] Additionally, she appeared on multiple television and radio programs, including NPR,[19] CBS Miami,[20] and became an important source for primary data and information about Florida's COVID-19 cases. She was profiled by The Washington Post[21] and Time[22] after she founded the non-profit group Florida Covid Action.[23]

Months later, Jones summarized the episode saying: "They never actually denied what I was saying. They said I was insubordinate, that I didn't listen to my superiors, and that was true. They asked me to do something wrong and I didn't do it."[24]

Jones continued to work with COVID-19 researchers to identify sources for missing Florida COVID-19 data as of July 2020 according to the COVID Tracking Project.[25] In September, she was also listed as one of 50 pandemic experts to follow by the Medium coronavirus blog.[26]

On December 7, 2020, at 8:30 a.m., state police raided Jones' home, where they confiscated electronic devices including her personal phone and laptop computer. She posted video of the encounter on Twitter taken from a home security camera.[27][28] Florida Department of Law Enforcement said in a statement later that day that a search warrant was issued because Jones was suspected of hacking into a Florida Department of Health computer system and sending an unauthorized message to members of the State Emergency Response Team on November 10, 2020.[29] The alleged statement urged recipients to "speak up before another 17,000 people are dead".[30]

In a press interview later that morning, Jones denied sending the unauthorized message. She stated that because the authorities seized only her personal electronic devices and not other electronics in her house that could have been used to send the unauthorized message, she does not think she was the target of the investigation at all, but rather that her phone was seized so authorities could identify the Florida Department of Health workers with whom she had been communicating, including her confidential sources.[31]

Nikki Fried, the same official who had defended Jones in May, reacted quickly on Twitter, claiming to have already spoken to FDLE, because "[k]nowing that children were in the home, police should have exercised extreme caution."[32] The next day, DeSantis appointee Ron Filipkowski resigned from his Florida position in the 12th Circuit Judicial Nomination Commission in solidarity with Jones, stating that the policy of Florida "towards COVID is reckless and irresponsible" and though "health policy was unrelated", that COVID-19 policy in Florida has become "now a legal one rather than just medical".[33][34] In a subsequent media interview, Filipkowski said his resignation decision was made after reading the search warrant for Jones' house and hearing a spokesman for DeSantis claim that the governor's office had no involvement in the raid, something that Filipkowski found "fantastical and not credible".[35]

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz accused governor Ron DeSantis of abusing Florida's judicial systems to persecute Jones for criticizing the mishandling of COVID-19 pandemic in Florida by the governor.[36]

Jones filed a lawsuit on December 20, 2020[37] against the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Commissioner Rick Swearingen[38] alleging that the police obtained a "sham" search warrant whose true purpose was to retaliate against her for being a whistleblower. Her suit also claims that one of the FDLE agents grabbed her "without consent, authorization, or legitimate basis" while searching her home.[39] She is also alleging that the FDLE violated her First Amendment free speech rights, and unlawful search and seizure when they confiscated computers and her personal cell phone.[37] Jones is seeking damages and a jury trial, stating in the 19-page lawsuit, which was filed in Leon County court, that "They entered her home with guns drawn, terrorizing her family."[38]

Jones has had prior criminal charges in Florida. At the time of the police raid, Jones was facing an active misdemeanor charge for allegedly cyberstalking a former student and romantic partner who'd got a restraining order against her. She had also faced prior charges stemming from an alleged violation of that restraining order, but those charges were dropped.[40][41][42]

In 2020, Jones was recognized by Fortune magazine's 40 Under 40 in Healthcare for founding Florida COVID Action and her geospatial scientific expertise.[43] On December 26 that year, Jones was named Forbes' Technology Person of the Year.[44]

• Official website
• Florida COVID Action – Jones' alternate COVID-19 dashboard for the state of Florida
• The COVID Monitor – US statewide website founded by the Florida COVID Action project for "the nation's most comprehensive COVID-19 dataset focusing on coronavirus cases in every K-12 school district in the U.S.A."