Mainstream media’s COVID-19 ‘whistleblower’ exposed

Accusations against Florida’s Department of Health by a former employee that alleged the state altered its COVID-19 data have been found to be false. 

Former Florida Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard manager Rebekah Jones went public in 2020 with accusations that the state fired her for refusing to manipulate COVID numbers at the request of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. 

DeSantis has been the corporate media’s COVID villain-at-large for refusing to impose restrictions on Floridians throughout the pandemic. Ultimately, Florida has fared much better than media-approved states like New York and California, that mandated lockdowns, school closures, masks and vaccines. 

Jones was trotted out by the media several times in a sustained show of scandal. 

NPR ran the story in May 2020 with the headline “Florida Dismisses A Scientist For Her Refusal To Manipulate State's Coronavirus Data”. 

Huffington Post wrote a December 2020 piece fawning, “Florida Scientist Vows To Speak COVID-19 ‘Truth To Power’ Despite Police Raid”. 

Cosmopolitan published a breathless profile on Jones in March 2021 titled "Rebekah Jones Tried to Warn Us About COVID-19. Now Her Freedom Is on the Line." 

Jones participated in no less than five interviews with then-CNN anchor Chris Cuomo and made several appearances on MSNBC’s The Reid Out with Joy Reid. 

But a recent internal report from Inspector General Michael Bennett’s office reveals that there was no truth behind the allegations.  

“The [Office of the Inspector General] found no evidence that the [Department of Health] misrepresented or otherwise misled the public regarding how positivity rates were calculated,” the report said. “The definitions for overall and new case positivity were provided on the Data Definition sheet and Health Metrics Overview, which were both linked to the dashboard, and were consistent with testimonial evidence obtained by the OIG.” 

The internal report also notes that Jones was terminated for insubordination. 

Ironically, the establishment side of the COVID-19 narrative has been guilty of promoting false COVID-19 figures on several occasions, most recently in the New York Times. 

As reported by Frontline News, the Times issued a correction last month after falsely claiming that nearly 4,000 children suffered COVID-19-related deaths when they were only diagnosed with a COVID-19-related illness. 

In April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) removed a paragraph from its website after a report by America’s Frontline News revealed that the agency does not, in fact, have any data regarding COVID-related child deaths.  

“As of mid-October 2021, children ages 5 through 11 years have experienced more than 8,300 COVID-19 related hospitalizations and nearly 100 deaths from COVID-19,” claimed the CDC. “In fact, COVID-19 ranks as one of the top 10 causes of death for children ages 5 through 11 years.”  

But in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from attorney Aaron Siri, the CDC admitted that it had no data on COVID-related deaths involving children 5-15 years old.  

The CDC also came under fire in March for falsely adding 72,000 deaths - including 416 child deaths - to its COVID-19 death count, which the center said was a “coding error”.