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So she was employed to make a dashboard for Florida, made the dashboard, they pressured her to make the numbers look better, she quit and made her own publicly

So she was employed to make a dashboard for Florida, made the dashboard, they pressured her to make the numbers look better, she quit and made her own publicly accessible dashboard with the "real" numbers on it. Either after creating her own dashboard or just before, she took resources from work and published a message on the work network which is why she's now being brought in for questioning and charged. With that in mind, wtf are all the other comments in this thread talking about? Its like they're talking about a completely different article or smth.

MattGaiser 6y ago
I have heard so many different stories about this matter. Wouldn’t surprise me if plenty of others have too.
- Quarrelsome 6y ago
  so why isn't this thread full of articles from other reputable sources?
starkd 6y ago
She might not have had the qualifications to make the judgement about what data was correct. She was defying the team of epidemiologists. She had a degree in geography and communications. She might have been over-reaching here. She already walked back a number of her commments.
- Quarrelsome 6y ago
  Well none of that is referenced in this article. Do you have a decent source for these claims? Also I don't think looking down your nose at the quality of her degrees in doing yourself any favours. This article claims she wrote the code that pulled the stats together so at the very least there was some familiarity with the problem set. You'd figure implementation issues are just the matter of a Github review or smth, so how did it get to her being fired and all this crap happening?
  - starkd 6y ago
    I'm not "looking down my nose" at anyone. I realize that capability does not come from degrees alone, but it's a legitimate question that should be asked. There are plenty of people who can code but don't know anything about data science, but like to pretend they do. She was involved in setting up the dashboard, but that's an entirely different skill set than epidemiology. Aren't you suspect that the article didn't seek the opinion of any of those epidemilogists? A little more of her background is here. https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/rebekah-jones/ https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/rebekah-jones/
    - Quarrelsome 6y ago
      Well I don't have a degree in anything which makes me wonder if you'd ever listen to me on any subject ever. I am not inherently suspect or not suspect of the article. We discuss it and then if other data turns up we discuss that. If you have a former colleague of hers being on the record or her previous employer is going to make a statement then sure but if you're just gonna speculate then I'm kinda "nah".
      - starkd 6y ago
        I'm not speculating anything. Maybe she's one of the best data scientists out there, I don't know. But the article expressed little interest in asking what should be an obvious question. Or why she may have been fired. Sure, it's unfair to speculate, but we should expect some fair journalism.
glitcher 6y ago
I agree, the emotion and division around this case seems a little odd. Another commenter states: > She was defying the team of epidemiologists in publishing bad data Whereas your take is: > they pressured her to make the numbers look better And I'm sitting here thinking, between potentially corrupt state government officials, and a potentially dishonest individual making claims against said state government, are we going to get down to facts and evidence instead of debating our feelings? I'm not believing either party based solely on he said / she said arguments.
- Quarrelsome 6y ago
  Well I'm just going by what was stated in our OP. > Jones has said she lost her job after refusing requests to manipulate data I'd appreciate it people cited what they were referencing because it appears some posters are just saying stuff without tying it back to a source making it hard to trace all the "he said, she said" and various sources.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- at-fates-hands 6y ago
  > they pressured her to make the numbers look better I'm surprised more people don't know how common this is in other states. I have a bunch of anecdotal evidence and articles on both sides of the aisle contending either the numbers are too high or too low - depending on your political affiliation. This whole COVID affair has been politicized from the outset, which is sad. It feels like the scientific data is being manipulated on both sides to create a political narrative in order to benefit one party or the other. It looks like politics has overrun the scientific community.
dehrmann 6y ago
s/she took resources/she allegedly took resources/ But yes, that's my take on the case. Prior to this, the press downplayed that she allegedly used shared credentials to the department messaging system, and she made a name for herself before the raid by being very public about concerns with the data on the dashboard, so the "story" was that the raid was retaliation. This could be someone trying to silence her, but the court seems to be shutting that down very well with reasonable bail. She's also very passionate and convinced she did the right thing, so using the messaging system (despite sloppy credential management, this would be illegal) is in character for her.
JumpCrisscross 6y ago
> published a message on the work network I don't think the state found any evidence, after seizing her equipment, that this was her. Exfiltrating data is the sole charge sustained.

MattGaiser 6y ago

I have heard so many different stories about this matter. Wouldn’t surprise me if plenty of others have too.

Quarrelsome 6y ago
so why isn't this thread full of articles from other reputable sources?

starkd 6y ago

She might not have had the qualifications to make the judgement about what data was correct. She was defying the team of epidemiologists. She had a degree in geography and communications. She might have been over-reaching here. She already walked back a number of her commments.

Quarrelsome 6y ago
Well none of that is referenced in this article. Do you have a decent source for these claims? Also I don't think looking down your nose at the quality of her degrees in doing yourself any favours. This article claims she wrote the code that pulled the stats together so at the very least there was some familiarity with the problem set. You'd figure implementation issues are just the matter of a Github review or smth, so how did it get to her being fired and all this crap happening?
- starkd 6y ago
  I'm not "looking down my nose" at anyone. I realize that capability does not come from degrees alone, but it's a legitimate question that should be asked. There are plenty of people who can code but don't know anything about data science, but like to pretend they do. She was involved in setting up the dashboard, but that's an entirely different skill set than epidemiology. Aren't you suspect that the article didn't seek the opinion of any of those epidemilogists? A little more of her background is here. https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/rebekah-jones/ https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/rebekah-jones/
  - Quarrelsome 6y ago
    Well I don't have a degree in anything which makes me wonder if you'd ever listen to me on any subject ever. I am not inherently suspect or not suspect of the article. We discuss it and then if other data turns up we discuss that. If you have a former colleague of hers being on the record or her previous employer is going to make a statement then sure but if you're just gonna speculate then I'm kinda "nah".
    - starkd 6y ago
      I'm not speculating anything. Maybe she's one of the best data scientists out there, I don't know. But the article expressed little interest in asking what should be an obvious question. Or why she may have been fired. Sure, it's unfair to speculate, but we should expect some fair journalism.

glitcher 6y ago

I agree, the emotion and division around this case seems a little odd. Another commenter states: > She was defying the team of epidemiologists in publishing bad data Whereas your take is: > they pressured her to make the numbers look better And I'm sitting here thinking, between potentially corrupt state government officials, and a potentially dishonest individual making claims against said state government, are we going to get down to facts and evidence instead of debating our feelings? I'm not believing either party based solely on he said / she said arguments.

Quarrelsome 6y ago
Well I'm just going by what was stated in our OP. > Jones has said she lost her job after refusing requests to manipulate data I'd appreciate it people cited what they were referencing because it appears some posters are just saying stuff without tying it back to a source making it hard to trace all the "he said, she said" and various sources.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
at-fates-hands 6y ago
> they pressured her to make the numbers look better I'm surprised more people don't know how common this is in other states. I have a bunch of anecdotal evidence and articles on both sides of the aisle contending either the numbers are too high or too low - depending on your political affiliation. This whole COVID affair has been politicized from the outset, which is sad. It feels like the scientific data is being manipulated on both sides to create a political narrative in order to benefit one party or the other. It looks like politics has overrun the scientific community.

dehrmann 6y ago

s/she took resources/she allegedly took resources/ But yes, that's my take on the case. Prior to this, the press downplayed that she allegedly used shared credentials to the department messaging system, and she made a name for herself before the raid by being very public about concerns with the data on the dashboard, so the "story" was that the raid was retaliation. This could be someone trying to silence her, but the court seems to be shutting that down very well with reasonable bail. She's also very passionate and convinced she did the right thing, so using the messaging system (despite sloppy credential management, this would be illegal) is in character for her.

JumpCrisscross 6y ago

> published a message on the work network I don't think the state found any evidence, after seizing her equipment, that this was her. Exfiltrating data is the sole charge sustained.