This is a great article that not only shows how big of a fraud Rebekah Jones really is but also shows how much the Media, the Defenders of the Truth, has decided to plain lie and distort to make this woman a hero just to damage Governor DeSantis and Florida, the renegades of the Pandemic. Of course, this is the same Media that lionized and idolized NY’s Governor Cuomo as an example of how to deal with the Chinese Flu.
NPR describes Jones as a “top scientist” leading Florida’s pandemic response. In fact, Jones has held three jobs in her field; all three have ended in her being terminated and criminally charged. She has a Master’s in geography from Louisiana State University, where she worked until she was fired. She was arrested in 2016 while, reportedly, trespassing on campus and attempting to steal computer equipment from her former workplace. She then lectured at Florida State University (FSU) and began researching tropical storms for a dissertation, but never earned a Ph.D. as she was suspended and fired in 2018 after her former student accused her of sexual cyberharassment. Before her termination from the DoH, she was a geographic information systems manager, overseeing the COVID-19 web portal.
The “Florida COVID-19 Whistleblower” Saga Is a Big Lie.
Hat Tip Mark B.
Glorified data entry clerk, with a Masters in Geology, is a “top scientist leading Florida’s pandemic response.” Tell me another one.
But, she’s an expert!
Seriously. She held a position in an org that dealt with the COVID pandemic response, therefore, her statements are gospel.
Just ask the Assembly member representing my district. My communication holds little weight, compared to that of the medical professionals. See, title is everything.
Keep that story handy for when Ron takes his shot at Biden in 4 years. Her story is sure to be recycled when he does, this can bitch-slap it back down fast.
So she worked for the Florida Department of Health.
If the FL DoH is anything like the Oregon Health Authority (OHA, our equivalent to the DoH), they are the public face of the pandemic response, but they run SO MANY OTHER PROGRAMS that just being “with the OHA” means f*ck-all about being a virus expert.
As a not-all-inclusive exercise, OHA operates:
– the state mental hospital
– the medical marijuana program
– vital events records (a.k.a. birth and death certificates)
And like most agencies has its own internal legal, payroll/benefits, human resources, and IT units, none of whom necessarily have any health-related expertise.
That last — the IT units — is most relevant, because a “geographic information systems manager” is almost certainly an IT job, and day-to-day probably has more to do with running residence addresses to determine the local school district and/or branch office location. She might be helping track COVID infections by region/location, but that’s only a possibility.
(And really, if you knew her outside of this NPR article, it means she failed at her job. If everything is working, IT is essentially invisible; you never see or interact with the people running it. If you meet your IT people — especially the managers — outside of a social setting [say, a meet-and-greet event], it usually means something has gone horribly wrong. The goal is, the end user doesn’t have to think about it because it just works.)
In any case, hers is not a “scientist” job as normally understood. It’s not even directly health-related.
Ergo, she is neither a “top scientist” nor “leading Florida’s pandemic response”. At best, she’s providing support behind the scenes like most IT staff, if she’s involved at all.
But it wouldn’t be the first time NPR stretched the truth to attack a sitting Republican politician.
Right, a GIS is a software package that lets you store, process, and display data that has some geographical aspect to it. Stuff like population density, or occurrence of injury from falling iguanas, or the like. And the person who runs that kind of system is very much an IT weenie, similar to a web site administrator. A reasonable intelligence, reasonable level of care, and a high school education are about right for that job. Undergrad college wouldn’t hurt but isn’t essential.
Bingo. The one that comes to my mind, is basically a HTML form submission on the front end, a database on the back end, and a little SQL query magic in between. In its current form, a little data entry here and testing there, and it does the job. I literally have met middle-schoolers with the skill set to maintain it.
You read the title, “geographic information systems manager”, and it sounds really cool. Like computerized cartography, full-color maps, handheld GPS interfaces, etc.
And that may be an accurate image … if you work for Garmin.
If you work for a state agency, it really is more like entering an address into a query and getting back the offices that service that area. Really unexciting stuff.
Looks good on a resume or NPR interview, though.