STATEWIDE — The former Florida Department of Health official behind the COVID-19 dashboard Rebekah Jones is giving her side of the story after being terminated from the position.

"If refusing to mislead the public during a health crisis is insubordination, I will wear that badge with honor,” she said.

Jones says she refused to manually change data in order to prematurely reopen the state, which caused her to be fired. 

"Asking me to delete data and hide information and make it publicly inaccessible was a bad decision. It was a wrong decision that I stated very clearly in several email communications that I still have I did not agree with I actually referred to it as the wrong call," she claimed.

Earlier this week, Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to questions about her removal.

"What she was doing is she was putting data on the portal which the scientists didn't believe was valid data so she didn't listen to the people who were her superiors," he said.

The governor says Jones was not involved in collecting data.

Sign up now for one of our newsletters that will show up in your inbox every weekday at 1 p.m. The newsletters highlight the most important stories of the day that you need to know for your area.

Spectrum News 13 newsletter

Spectrum Bay News 9 newsletter