BEHIND BARS

Florida Accuses COVID Whistleblower Rebekah Jones of Illegally Sending Warning Email

Rebekah Jones is in jail after she was accused of improperly accessing a state email system.

A former Florida Department of Health worker who blew the whistle on the state’s COVID-19 tracking is in jail, after authorities charged her with improperly accessing the state’s email system to sent a message to DOH employees, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Rebekah Jones, who was arrested this weekend, is charged with one count of computer offenses for allegedly using the email system to urge approximately 1,750 state employees to speak out. “Speak up before another 17,000 people are dead," the email reportedly read. “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.” Jones reportedly denies involvement with the message. Before her termination from the Florida DOH, she built a dashboard for tracking COVID-19 cases. She later accused Gov. Ron DeSantis's administration of pressuring her to remove unflattering data from that dashboard.