Rebekah Jones was the Florida Department of Health employee who built the state’s public COVID-19 dashboard during the early pandemic. According to the record, after Jones publicized her role in the project through social media, an outside vendor interview, and her own blog — without clearance from DOH’s communications office — her supervisors grew concerned she was speaking for the agency without authorization.
Separately, Jones says that when asked to prepare county-level reopening data, she was instructed to lower reported infection rates and exclude smaller counties from the analysis — an instruction she says she refused to carry out because she considered it a directive to falsify data. She continued publishing data through DOH’s open portal even after being told to take it offline pending review.
The circuit court granted summary judgment for DOH and then-Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo (substituted for his predecessor under the state’s official-capacity succession rule), and the First District affirmed, finding no genuine dispute of material fact remained for a jury.
Citation: Jones v. Department of Health, No. 1D2025-0732 (Fla. 1st DCA July 29, 2026).