In a statement issued Tuesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis defended the firing of Rebekah Jones, the scientist who created the coronavirus tracking database for the state. Rebekah Jones told Florida Today on Monday that she had been fired the previous week after having developed the database used by the Florida Department of Health for the past two months. The story of Jones’ firing broke as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US neared 1.6 million and the number of deaths approached 100,000. There are 47,000 cases and just under 2,100 deaths in Florida alone, with more than 500 new cases each day. Other major hot spots for the pandemic in the US include Maryland, Illinois, Virginia and Texas.
— source wsws.org | 21 May 2020