Outrage after home of virus whistleblower raided by US police

A US state governor is under pressure after a Covid-19 data whistleblower’s home was raided by police, prompting a steady stream of outrage as the facts come to light.

Rebekah Jones, a former information systems manager with the Florida Department of Health, was fired in May after questioning the state’s daily coronavirus data which was made public via an online dashboard.

Ms Jones questioned the transparency of the data and claims much of it was manipulated before being presented to the public. She said Health Department managers urged her to manipulate information to paint a rosier picture and that she pushed back.

The data was crucial as the governor was trying to make highly controversial decisions on whether to reopen Florida’s economy.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, used data from the dashboard — including the relatively low rate of people testing positive for the coronavirus — to build support for reopening the state at the time. Florida has had almost 20,000 deaths from Covid-19.

Tracie Davis, a Democrat from Jacksonville and a member of the House Health Committee, also questioned the data.

After Ms Jones’s dismissal she developed her own Covid-19 dashboard and also frequently criticised DeSantis. For months, she has tried to promote herself as a victim who was fired for telling the truth, although there is no evidence that supports her claims.

Whistleblower’s home raided

On Monday (local time), Florida authorities investigating an alleged hack into the state’s emergency response system raided Jones’ home.

Video uploaded to Twitter by her shows police raiding the home with guns drawn.

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Jones claims officers pointed a gun at her face and her children. She could be heard on body camera footage loudly pleading, “Do not point a gun at my children!”

“They took my phone and the computer I use every day to post the case numbers in Florida, and school cases for the entire country,” she tweeted.

“They took evidence of corruption at the state level. They claimed it was about a security breach. This was DeSantis. He sent the gestapo.”

She told CNN the computers had “evidence of illegal activities" undertaken by Florida’s government.

Ms Jones initially refused to answer the door for 20 minutes and hung up when agents called her, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

It is unclear whether authorities pointed weapons at anyone in Jones’ home.

The Tampa Bay Times reported someone hacked into the Department of Health’s system in early November, warning recipients to “speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it’s too late.”

Crowdfunding page raises more than $300k

Ms Jones is now undertaking legal action against the Florida Governor’s “recent attack” on her family and has raised more than A$305,000 via a GoFundMe page. She believes DeSantis is responsible for the raid.

“I built my reputation on transparency. That's not changing,” she wrote.

“Whatever is leftover will be donated to a legal fund that helps provide pro-bono legal services in civil cases for whistle-blowers.”

DeSantis told reporters earlier this week Ms Jones “has issues”.

“It was not a raid,” he said. “They went, they followed protocol.”

He said the Gestapo comparison was especially offensive.

The Florida governor, and close Trump ally, had previously said he was not aware that a warrant would be executed, but he seemed to offer a different version of events on Friday (local time).

“I know there was an investigation,” he said.

Jones told Yahoo News his admission on Friday showed he “lied” after earlier claiming he had no knowledge of the investigation.

DeSantis spokesman Fred Piccolo told Yahoo News that there was nothing inconsistent about the governor’s position.

“He indicated he knew there was an investigation, not there was an investigation into Miss Jones,” Piccolo said.

“We said all along that he neither directed initiated or knew about any details of the investigation or in any way steered it.”

Earlier this week, Republican lawyer Ron Filipkowski resigned from a judicial nominating committee in protest over the Jones raid.

“I have been increasingly alarmed by the Governor’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Filipkowski wrote in his resignation letter.

He said he found the assertion made by MrPiccolo that Mr DeSantis knew nothing of the raid “not credible.”

Jones told Yahoo News that despite Monday’s confiscation of her computer equipment, she has been able to purchase new equipment and resume work on her dashboard.

“Everything was back up and running the next day,” she said.

with AP

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