No one should enjoy DeSantis' downfall more than me.
Rewind to four years ago: I was a no-name nerd running the Florida Department of Health’s (FDOH) GIS Office and public COVID-19 data and surveillance systems.
A Ph.D student at Florida State, I had taken the position, split between FDOH and Florida’s Department of Emergency Management, to pay my bills while I worked on my dissertation.
Academically, I was at the top of my game: I had won some of the highest honors in my field, developed a dissertation project hailed by the top experts in my discipline, and took the job at FDOH to help save lives while I continued to study.
In March 2020, my work on the Florida COVID-19 dashboard launched me into niche stardom.
I believed in what we were doing. For the first few months, I managed to avoid a lot of the political interference colleagues experienced in other states, and even within my own department.
Until DeSantis’ premature reopening of the state in May, when I was asked to sell the publi…
