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It's Wednesday, April 12, 2023 from Peach Fish Productions. It's The Gist I'm Mike Pesca.

Rebecca Jones is a brave whistleblower who stood up to powerful forces within her state of Florida

and was made to pay an enormous price in order to protect a public who was being lied to.

Or Rebecca Jones is a serial fabulous who has been able to turn attention over her own misdeeds

into a type of martyrdom. Increasingly, it seems like the latter explanation is the one that best fits.

So to catch you up, Rebecca Jones was the state employee who, in 2020, claimed Florida was

faking their COVID data. She was fired, her home was rated, she filed a whistleblower suit,

and along the way became a star on such outlets as MSNBC. Joining us now is the keeper of Florida

data. Rebecca Jones, the former manager of data and surveillance for COVID-19 at the Florida

Department of Health. Thank you very much for joining us again tonight, Rebecca. What is the

situation with the state of Florida's publicly available data? Is it still as flawed to put it

mildly as it was when you were fired? That was Lauren Seddonal, but a thorough investigation of her

claims found that Jones' allegations had no merit. Well, her home was rated, that is true,

but it was to recover data which she have legally obtained. She settled with the state, admitting

guilt to a charge of illegally accessing the state's computer system. She paid $20,000 to

cover the state's investigation cost. She performed 150 hours of community service,

and she was forced to see a mental health counselor monthly. I don't want to be glib about the

mental health counselor not working, but since then, Jones has lobbed a series of baseless and

increasingly wild accusations to get attention or to get funding for her go fund me. She claimed

to have inside information that Mac Gates was about to be arrested. She linked two articles that

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